Afrithelphusa gerhildae Bott 1969
Creators: name: Cumberlidge, Neil
name: Mvogo Ndongo, Pierre A.
name: Clark, Paul F.
name: Salieu, Sankoh
name: von Rintelen, Thomas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Malacostraca
Decapoda
Deckeniidae
Afrithelphusa
Afrithelphusa gerhildae

description: Afrithelphusa gerhildae Bott, 1969
(Figures 1, 2 (b), 3(b), 4(e,i), 5(c,d,j,n), 6(d,e,f,n), 8; Tables 1–3)
Gerhilda̍s freshwater crab
Afrithelphusa gerhildae Bott, 1969: 360; 1970: 26–27, pl. 2, fig. 9–11, pl. 26, fig. 9; Monod 1977: 1210; 1980: 380; Cumberlidge 1996a: 688–690, table 1; 1999: 220–223, fig. 46A, 47A, 48A, 49A, 50A, 518, 528, 53AA, 54–57, 62A, 68B, table IX, pl 1.
Material examined
Type material. Holotype: Guinea: adult ♂ (CW 22.5 mm), Le Voile de la Mariée, Kindia, near Conakry (9.982013°N, − 12.795237°W), 123 m ASL, coll. Marchal, 8 July 1957 (SMF 2619 a). Paratype, adult ♀ (CW 22 mm), Le Voile de la Mariée, Kindia, near Conakry (9.982013°N, − 12.795237°W), 123 m ASL, coll. Marchal, 8 July 1957 (SMF 2619 b).
Diagnosis
Carapace outline transversely oval, highly arched (CH /FW = 1.5); pterygostomial region of carapace branchiostegite with patches of dense short setae (Cumberlidge 1999, pl. 1). Mandibular palp consisting of basis followed by two articles; terminal article (MPTA) bilobed (MPAL/MPTA = 0.7) (Figure 4 (i); Table 3; Cumberlidge 1999, fig. 48A). Cheliped carpus smooth-textured (Figure 5 (j)); ambulatory legs P2–5 medium length (Figure 1 (b); Table 3; Cumberlidge 1999, pl. 1). G1TA medium length (G1TA/G1SA = 0.4), slim, broadest proximally, distal half curving outward; Cumberlidge 1999, fig. 52A); G1SA lacking raised rounded shoulder on external margin near G1TA-G1SA junction (Figure 6 (d,f)); DM narrow ((Figure 6 (f)), Cumberlidge 1999, fig. 52AA). G2TA medium length (G2TA/G2SA = 0.5), flagellum-like, with distinct distal curve, ending in rounded tip (Figure 6 (e); Table 3; Cumberlidge 1999, fig. 53AA). For full description see Bott (1959, 1969, 1970); Monod (1977); Cumberlidge (1987, 1991, 1996a, 1996b, 1999).
Size
The adult size range begins at CW 22 mm.
Colour
Unknown in life. Preserved specimens are uniformly pale brown.
Distribution
The western part of the Upper Guinea rainforest zone in Guinea, West Africa (Figure 1).
Type locality
West Africa, Guinea, Le Voile de la Mariée, Kindia, near Conakry (9.982013°N, − 12.795237°W).
Habitat
This species is known from a single locality in the Northern Upper Guinea Ecoregion (FEOW 511), and was collected from a pool at the bottom of an 80 m waterfall in an area surrounded by rainforest that includes giant bamboos.
Conservation
Afrithelphusa gerhildae is likely a threatened species in danger of extinction, although it is currently considered under the IUCN Red List guidelines to be a Data Deficient species because there is little or no information available on its population size and trends, habitat, distributional range, or threat (Cumberlidge and Daniels 2020a; Mvogo Ndongo et al. 2022).
Remarks
The medium-length flagellum of the G2TA of the male holotype of A. gerhildae ((Figure 6 (e)); Cumberlidge 1999, fig. 52AA) is similar in length to that of A. monodosa, A. leonensis and A. afzelii ((Figure 6 (b,h,k)); Table 3) and is strikingly longer than the short stub-like G2TA of G. macropus (Table 3). Bott (1959) listed a male from Le Voile de la Mariée, Guinea (CW 22.5 mm, SMF 2619a) under G. macropus and used this specimen for his illustrations of the mandible and gonopods (Bott 1959, figs. 1–3), rather than basing his illustrations on the holotype of G. macropus. This would explain why the text and the figure of the G 2 in Bott (1959, fig. 3) shows a medium-length flagellum-like G2TA (as in A. gerhildae (Figure (6e)), rather than a short stub-like G2TA (and not a flagellum) characteristic of G. macropus (Cumberlidge 1999, fig. 53Z; Table 3). The specimen (SMF 2619a) used by Bott (1959) to illustrate G. macropus was later transferred by Bott (1969) to Afrithelphusa, when he established A. gerhildae. Afrithelphusa gerhildae was later redescribed by Cumberlidge (1996a, 1996b, 1999).
description: Published as part of Cumberlidge, Neil, Mvogo Ndongo, Pierre A., Clark, Paul F., Salieu, Sankoh & von Rintelen, Thomas, 2023, A revision of the West African freshwater crab genus Afrithelphusa Bott, 1969 (Brachyura: Deckeniidae: Deckeniinae) based on new morphological and genetic data, pp. 924-946 in Journal of Natural History 57 (13 - 16) on pages 938-939, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2023.2216908, http://zenodo.org/record/8221731