Parahelice sp. 1

Hsu, Jhih-Wei & Shih, Hsi-Te, 2024, First records of Parahelice K. Sakai, Türkay & Yang, 2006 and Pseudohelice K. Sakai, Türkay & Yang, 2006 from Vanuatu, with description of a new species of Parahelice (Crustacea: Brachyura: Varunidae), Zootaxa 5476 (1), pp. 138-151 : 144

Parahelice sp. 1

Material examined. 2 females (21.3 × 17.2, 18.3 × 14.8 mm), ZRC 2023.0245 , st. VM34, Palikulo Peninsula , Sanma Province, Espiritu Santo Island, Vanuatu, 23 Sep. 2006 .

Remarks. In the collection of Parahelice from Vanuatu, there are an additional 3 specimens superficially similar to Par. ngankeeae . The 3 specimens form two closely related clades, sister to Par. ngankeeae based on the molecular analyses ( Fig. 5 ; Table 2 ). One clade (Par. sp. 1) has 2 females (ZRC 2023.0245) that agree with the character of suborbital cristae of Par. georgei described in K. Sakai et al. (2006). Another clade (Par. sp. 2) with 1 male (ZRC 2023.0246) also conforms to the male characters of suborbital cristae, chelipedal manus, and male G1s of Par. georgei . Further study is necessary to confirm the identity of the two species.

Figures

FIGURE 5. A Bayesian inference (BI) tree for species of Parahelice and Pseudohelice, based on the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene. Probability values at the nodes represent support values for BI and maximum likelihood (ML) analyses. For haplotypes from Vanuatu (shown in bold with “*”) obtained in this study, see Table 1. Other haplotypes from GenBank are shown as the accession numbers.