Reassessment of cambaroides dauricus and C. schrenckii (Crustacea: Decapoda: Cambaridae)

Abstract

Taxonomic confusion has been presented within freshwater crayfishes of the genus Cambaroides since Starobogatov published morphological definition and revision of the group in 1995. He suggested that Cambaroides should be revised: the C. dauricus contained three species C. dauricus, C. wladiwostokiensis, and C. koshewnikowi; the C. schrenckii with two species C. schrenckii and C. sachalinensis. Also Straovogatov did not take into account the previous data of crayfish distributions. In order to clear up the confusion, the taxonomy of crayfish sampled from Mongolia, Russia, China, and North Korea was reassessed. Starovogatov's key could not lead to the correct identification. Also, detailed observations of apical robe of the male first pleopod did not support the taxonomy on the genus Cambaroides proposed by Starobogatov in 1995. However, some local variations of morphology exist in rostrum, pleuron, and telson of Asian crayfish. Future studies should be concentrated on whether there are geographical dines of morphology or if taxonomic subdivision is necessary.