Cryptic diversity in Engaeus Erichson, Geocharax Clark and Gramastacus Riek (Decapoda : Parastacidae) revealed by mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences

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Contents Vol 21(6)

doi:10.1071/IS07019

Cryptic diversity in Engaeus Erichson, Geocharax Clark and Gramastacus Riek (Decapoda : Parastacidae) revealed by mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequences

Mark B. Schultz ^A, Sarah A. Smith ^A, Alastair M. M. Richardson ^B, Pierre Horwitz ^C, Keith A. Crandall ^D, Christopher M. Austin ^E ^F

^A Arafura Timor Research Facility, School of Science and Primary Industries, Charles Darwin University, PO Box 41775, Casuarina, Northern Territory 0811, Australia.
^B School of Zoology, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 5, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.
^C School of Natural Sciences, Edith Cowan University, 100 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, Perth, Western Australia 6027, Australia.
^D Department of Integrative Biology, 675 Widstoe Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602-5255, USA.
^E School of Science and Primary Industries, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory 0909, Australia.
^F Corresponding author. Email: chris.austin@cdu.edu.au





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Invertebrate Systematics 21(6) 569–587 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/IS07019
Submitted: 12 May 2007 Accepted: 23 October 2007 Published online: 18 December 2007

Abstract

Nucleotide sequence data from the mitochondrial 16S rDNA region were utilised to investigate phylogenetic relationships and species boundaries among Australian freshwater crayfish belonging to the genera Engaeus Erichson, 1846, Geocharax Clark, 1936 and Gramastacus Riek, 1972. Geocharax and Gramastacus were found to be monophyletic genera but one species currently assigned to Engaeus may belong to another genus. Relationships between the three existing genera were not resolved. Analysis of species boundaries within Geocharax suggests that there are an additional two species in this genus, and our analysis of Gramastacus indicates that undescribed populations from central New South Wales may comprise a second species. The data provide at least one instance of a taxon crossing the Great Dividing Range and provide confirmation of previously proposed hypotheses seeking to explain trans-Bass Strait distributions of species.

Keywords: molecular taxonomy, parastacid, phylogenetics, South Australia, south-eastern Australia, Tasmania, Tenuibranchiurus, Victoria.