Kamburska L, Sabatino R, Schiavetta D, De Santis V, Ferrari E, Mor J-R, Zaupa S, Garzoli L, Boggero A. 2024. A new misleading colour morph: is Marmorkrebs the only “marbled” crayfish? BioInvasions Records 13(4): 949-961. https://doi.org/10.3391/bir.2024.13.4.09
Abstract
We describe the occurrence of two unusually coloured crayfish individuals in two different locations in northwestern Italy (lakes Orta and Comabbio). They represent the first record in Italy of a marbled colour morph of Procambarus clarkii. Species assignment through morphological analyses was confirmed by molecular identification. Different body parts from the adult marbled coloured male and female, together with eggs and juveniles were analysed and blasted in GeneBank. All the sequences
were identified as P. clarkii, with a query coverage ≥ 99.0% and a percentage identity ≥ 99.7%. Based solely on external appearance, this new morphotype may lead to misinterpretation of taxonomic identification, being this colour morph very similar to the Marmorkrebs P. virginalis. A marbled female of P. clarkii could be wrongly attributed to Marmorkrebs when identification keys and molecular taxonomy are not considered to complement each other. The marbled morph of P. clarkii not only illustrates how varicoloured are the members of the family Cambaridae, but it also suggests that marbled colour alone is inadequate to identify a species. Therefore, it is recommended to consider this new colour in the morphological identification of the adult red swamp crayfish P. clarkii. The approach that integrates both molecular and morphological information improves promptly species taxonomy towards timely and appropriate management measures.
Keywords: DNA barcoding • integrative taxonomy • morphological analyses • morphotype • phenotypic plasticity • red swamp crayfish
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