Species designation requires new name for Gulf of Mexico marsh crab, restricting Sesarma reticulatum (Say, 1817) to the Atlantic seaboard of North America (Decapoda, Sesarmidae)

Abstract

Abstract Long regarded to represent an undescribed species related to Sesarma reticulatum, warm-temperate populations of a common marsh crab from the Gulf of Mexico are herewith formally named Sesarma schubarti sp. nov. Records of S. reticulatum s. s. are restricted to the U.S. Atlantic seaboard from the Woods Hole region of Massachusetts to the Indian River region on the east coast of Florida. A diverse body of supportive evidence to underpin this separation has accrued over three decades, including previous observations based on physiology, ecology, reproduction, blood hemocyanin proteins, isozymes, and mtDNA sequences. Comparative morphological studies provide only minor structural characters to distinguish the new species from its Atlantic seaboard counterpart, including differences in the shape of the mature male first gonopod tip and positioning of a transverse crest on the male first pleonite. However, in fresh specimens colouration also differs, often strikingly so. Body surfaces that are variously purplish in mature specimens of S. reticulatum s. s., yielding the common name “purple marsh crab”, are instead more commonly reddish to orange in S. schubarti sp. nov. Our analysis of new 16S and COI gene sequences, along with existing genetic data, clarifies relationships of the new species to both S. reticulatum s. s. and S. curacaoense. The new species is formally named in honor of the late Christoph D. Schubart, a cherished colleague who contributed extensively to knowledge of sesarmid and other brachyuran crabs over his unfortunately abbreviated career.