Freshwater Crustacea Decapoda of New Guinea

Abstract

Although the Decapoda are the best known freshwater Crustacea of New Guinea, knowledge of their taxonomy, distribution and ecology is still very fragmentary, and a clear picture of their biogeography and ecology can not yet be given, but some interesting features can be observed. The Decapoda inhabiting the freshwaters of New Guinea belong to three distinct categories: (1) shrimps belonging to the families Atyidae and Palaemonidae, (2) crayfish of the family Parastacidae and (3) crabs of the families Sundathelphusidae, Grapsidae, and Hymenosomatidae. Of these 6 families only the Parastacidae and Sundathelphusidae are exclusively fresh- water inhabitants; the other families contain species that spend their entire life or part of it in the sea or in brackish water, the percentage of true freshwater species in each family is variable, being quite high in the Atyidae and extremely low in the Grapsidae.