''Nanhaipotamon macau'', the Coloane hill crab, is a species of
freshwater crab
Around 1,300 species of freshwater crabs are distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics, divided among eight family (biology), families. They show direct development and maternal care of a small number of offspring, in contrast to marine c ...
found solely in twelve hill streams on the island of
Coloane
Coloane ( Chinese: 路環, Portuguese: ''Coloane'') is the southernmost area in Macau, connected to Taipa through the area known as Cotai, which is largely built from reclaimed land. Known as “''Lou Wan''” in Cantonese, Coloane forms the sou ...
in
Macao
Macau or Macao is a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most densely populated region in the world.
Formerly a Portuguese colony, the ter ...
. A member of the genus
Nanhaipotamon
''Nanhaipotamon'' is a genus of freshwater crabs, in the subfamily Potamiscinae, found in southern China and Taiwan. As of 2018, 18 species have been described. The genus is named after the South China Sea (; literally: 'South Sea'), for it occur ...
, it was first described in December 2018
and is closely related to other land crabs such as ''
Nanhaipotamon hongkongense''.
[
]
Discovery
A scientific study, commissioned by the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau of Macao and the University of New South Wales, was conducted in 2018 with the aim of surveying the freshwater crabs resident in the country of Macao and neighboring parts of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
, as well as redescribing the Wuping Crab ('' Nanhaipotamon wupingense''), a closely related species of land crab whose original type specimen
In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...
was lost after being described in insufficient detail. One preserved specimen thought to represent the Wuping Crab, collected in Macao in 2010, was examined in the course of this study and subsequently described as an entirely new species of crab, ''Nanhaipotamon macau'', on the basis of morphological differences between it and the Wuping Crab, which is now considered endemic to Xiaba in the province of Fujian.[
]
Distribution
The Coloane hill crab has an extremely restricted distribution encompassing 12 hill streams on the Macanese island of Coloane, occurring across approximately 5.3 square kilometres of territory (excluding sea area) of which only 3 square kilometres are believed to be occupied by the crab. Nevertheless, although not evaluated for conservation status by the IUCN, it is not considered threatened, as it is abundant throughout its habitat, none of the streams it occupies are threatened with development, the crab is not collected for food or as an aquarium specimen, and it inhabits a protected area, specifically the Ka-Ho Reservoir Freshwater Wetland.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q63726353
Potamoidea
Taxa named by Shane T. Ahyong
Crustaceans described in 2018