Pseudothelphusa galloi (Villalobos & Alvarez, 2009)

Villalobos, José Luis & Alvarez, Fernando, 2010, Phylogenetic analysis of the Mexican freshwater crabs of the tribe Pseudothelphusini (Decapoda: Brachyura: Pseudothelphusidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 160 (3), pp. 457-481 : 474

PSEUDOTHELPHUSA GALLOI

Pseudothelphusa galloi is separate on its own branch supported by one synapomorphy (character 67), which refers to the presence of an inner expansion of the mesial process that closes the apical cavity of the gonopod along the cephalic margin (node 7). Additional characters that support the separation of P. galloi from Pseudothelphusa are: inner expansion of the mesial process as a rounded plate overreaching the apex of the gonopod (character 68); caudomarginal process as a single, axe-shaped lobe (character 48); merus of third maxilliped wider than long (character 26); anterior margin of merus of third maxilliped subrectangular (character 27); and the presence of a rounded lobe at the base of the major chela’s fingers (character 30). This set of characters justifies the erection of a new genus to accommodate P. galloi .

Alvarez & Villalobos (1990) compared Pseudothelphusa galloi with P. jouyi , P. lophophallus , and P. sonorae , based on the reduction of the distal lobe of the caudo-marginal projection, and considering that all four species occur along the Pacific slope of Mexico. However, the shape and extension of the mesial process in P. galloi is a character not shared with any other pseudothelphusine.