Description of a new species of freshwater shrimp (Decapoda: Caridea: Atyidae) from Mount Danxia, Guangdong, China, based on morphological and molecular evidence

Abstract

A new atyid species, Caridina danxiaensis sp. nov., is discovered from Danxia Mountain National Nature Reserve in Guangdong Province. Morphological investigations show obvious differences from any known Caridina species. It can be easily distinguished from its congeners based on distinct characteristics of the rostrum, stylocerite, and uropodal diaeresis. Genetic analysis of Caridina based on 16S rRNA gene sequences also supports the distinctiveness of the new species from all other morphologically similar species. The sequence divergence (Kimura 2-parameter model) based on this gene between the new species and its closest congener, C. clinata, was 5.7%.