A new species of land crab has been discovered in Pingtung County, a researcher at Taiwan’s National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium said earlier this week, adding that the species — Neosarmatium laeve, a kind of sesarmid crab — had until May been misidentified as a different species.
Li Jheng-jhang, the collecting manager at the Pingtung-based museum, told the Central News Agency (CNA) that after sample comparisons, he found that the crabs caught at the mouth of the Baoli River, north of the museum, are not juvenile specimens of Neosarmatium indicum, as had previously been thought, but a separate species.
“The Baoli River crab is a species that has not been recorded in Taiwan before, although it is already known to exist in India and West Pacific countries,” Li said.
Photo: CNA
Li added that his report on the finding has been included in the museum’s official publication, Plaxtax.
N laeve, which measures just 2cm, is the smallest of the sesarmid crabs, which are also known as red-handed shore crabs, Li said, adding that the word laeve means “smooth” and refers to the species’ hairless carapace.
Inhabiting burrows in the mud at the mouth of rivers, the crab is shy and ventures out only at night or after rain, Li said. Judging by its population, the species has been well-established in the area for a long period of time, he added.
Li said that so far, more than 50 kinds of land crab have been recorded on the Hengchun Peninsula in Pingtung. However, he said there could be as many as 10 or more species that have not yet been identified.
Some might have already become extinct without ever having been described, due to human activities and encroachment into their habitats, he said. For example, N laeva was found in an area just 2km away from a hotel construction project.
“Hotel development can cause great damage to the habitat of land crabs,” he said.
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