Phylogenetic analysis of the Mexican freshwater crabs of the tribe Pseudothelphusini (Decapoda: Brachyura: Pseudothelphusidae)

The Mexican pseudothelphusid crabs are classified in one subfamily, three tribes, and 13 genera. Up to now, 56 species have been recognized, distributed in a strictly Neotropical pattern, with some of them reaching the state of Sonora on the western slope of Mexico. The tribe Pseudothelphusini is the most diverse, with five genera and 35 species, all of them endemic to Mexico: the two most species-rich genera are Pseudothelphusa, with 23 species, and Tehuana, with eight species; Epithelphusa includes two species, whereas Disparithelphusa and Smalleyus are monotypic. The Pseudothelphusini lack an updated systematic revision, which could serve as a framework to analyse the monophyletic origin of the group, to clarify the relationships among genera and species, as well as to resolve the taxonomic status of various species complexes. In the present study, an exhaustive morphological revision was conducted using somatic and sexual characters. A phylogenetic analysis was performed using 77 characters and 183 character states, taken from 41 species. Ten trees of the same length were obtained using PAUP 4.0 through a heuristic search. The results show that the tribe as it is actually known constitutes a paraphyletic group, in which the species of Epithelphusa and Pseudothelphusa puntarenas are excluded from the internal group. According to the obtained results, the tribe Pseudothelphusini s.s. includes five genera: Smalleyus, Pseudothelphusa, Tehuana, and two new ones to accommodate Pseudothelphusa galloi and Pseudothelphusa sulcifrons, respectively. This new arrangement considers the provisional suppression of the genus Disparithelphusa, which remained as another species of Pseudothelphusa throughout the cladistic analysis. The phylogenetic results show a strong congruence with the distribution of the species, in several cases grouping species that form morphological clines along a geographical gradient. The previously proposed southern origin of the tribe Pseudothelphusini gains support with the results obtained. © 2010 The Linnean Society of London.