Jimenez Pedro Julião, Chang Kai, Shih Hsi-Te, Yasuhara Moriaki
School of Biological Sciences and The Swire Institute of Marine Science; The University of Hong Kong; Hong Kong SAR; China; State Key Laboratory of Marine Pollution; City University of Hong Kong; Hong Kong SAR; China.
Department of Life Science; National Chung Hsing University; Taichung 402; Taiwan.
Zootaxa. 2024 Jul 4;5476(1):177-191. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5476.1.17.
The Indo-West Pacific region has a rich fiddler crab fauna. In East Asia, some species of fiddler crabs, such as Tubuca coarctata (H. Milne Edwards, 1852) and T. dussumieri (H. Milne Edwards, 1852), are considered insular, being present in the Philippines, Taiwan, and Ryukyus, but with no consistent record on continental China. Although T. dussumieri has been previously recorded in continental China, these records were considered dubious or misidentified. The nature of the Kuroshio Current and the colder waters of the China Coastal Current, compared to the currents along the eastern coasts of the Philippines and Taiwan, are considered barriers to the entrance of larvae of these species into the region. Nonetheless, using the cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene and morphological evidence, we present the first record of T. coarctata and show the presence of a T. dussumieri population in Hong Kong SAR, China. We hypothesize that the newly found T. coarctata in Hong Kong may be related to water temperature increases due to anthropogenic climate change, which allows its larvae to survive in this region and develop into adult crabs. Furthermore, our findings corroborate previous records of T. dussumieri in continental China. The restricted distribution of T. dussumieri in China and the smaller size of individuals, however, may indicate suboptimal habitats for arriving larvae. The limited presence of the two crabs on Chinese shores indicates that the intense coastal development in the country, such as in Hong Kong, may destroy suitable habitats and render these species susceptible to local extinction.
印度-西太平洋地区拥有丰富的招潮蟹动物群。在东亚，一些招潮蟹物种，如Tubuca coarctata（H.米尔恩·爱德华兹，1852年）和T. dussumieri（H.米尔恩·爱德华兹，1852年），被认为是岛屿特有种，分布于菲律宾、台湾和琉球群岛，但在中国大陆没有一致的记录。尽管T. dussumieri此前曾在中国大陆有过记录，但这些记录被认为是可疑的或错误鉴定的。与菲律宾和台湾东海岸的洋流相比，黑潮和中国沿岸流较冷的海水被认为是这些物种的幼体进入该地区的障碍。尽管如此，利用细胞色素氧化酶亚基I（COI）基因和形态学证据，我们首次记录了T. coarctata，并表明中国香港特别行政区存在T. dussumieri种群。我们推测，在香港新发现的T. coarctata可能与人为气候变化导致的水温升高有关，这使得其幼体能够在该地区生存并发育成成年螃蟹。此外，我们的发现证实了此前T. dussumieri在中国大陆的记录。然而，T. dussumieri在中国分布受限且个体较小，这可能表明到达的幼体栖息地不太适宜。这两种螃蟹在中国海岸的存在有限，表明中国沿海地区（如香港）的密集开发可能会破坏适宜的栖息地，使这些物种易受局部灭绝的影响。
