The enigmatic Marmorkrebs (marbled crayfish) is the parthenogenetic form of Procambarus fallax (Hagen, 1870)
By Peer Martin, N. Dorn, T. Kawai, C. V. D. Heiden, Gerhard Scholtz. 2010
154 citations recorded by the source corpus.
A mysterious parthenogenetic cambarid crayfish (the Marmorkrebs) has been spreading across the globe for the past decade. We compare this crayfish directly to two other cambarids, Procambarus fallax and P. alleni, that have been suggested to be related or even identical to the Marmorkrebs. Using external morphology and sequences of two mitochondrial genes we show clear correspondences between Marmorkrebs and P. fallax, a species found natively throughout peninsular Florida, USA. Based on these congruent results we suggest that the Marmorkrebs is the parthenogenetic form of P. fallax. This finding has potential evolutionary and ecological implications at several levels. The Marmorkrebs might be a type of geographical parthenogenesis, but a natural population in the wild is so far unknown. Furthermore, challenges arise in regard to the respective species status of the Marmorkrebs. Taxonomically we suggest that the Marmorkrebs is treated as ‘parthenogenetic form’ of P. fallax. Last but not least, the identity of this animal and its ecology has an impact for considering potential spread and effects of this species across the globe.
Subfields: Ecology, Oceanography
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/74a4009accc8b4db314da318db14cb0a74f7edd9
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In Ecology
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In Oceanography
Citations in the corpus
- Continental-wide distribution of crayfish species in Europe: update and maps (2014, background): “These exclusively female aquarium stocks, for several years of unclear taxonomic position, were confirmed to belong to the slough crayfish Procambarus fallax (Martin et al., 2010), an American species occurring in Florida and Georgia (Taylor et al., 2007).”
- Managing invasive crayfish: is there a hope? (2011, background): “…use, as shown in the case of both the marbled crayfish (Nonnis Marzano et al. 2009; Peay 2009), a North American species recently identified as a parthenogenetic form of Procambarus fallax (Martin et al. 2010), and the Australian red-claw crayfish C. quadricarinatus in the UK (Peay 2009).”
- Ecological roles of crayfish in freshwater and terrestrial habitats (2013, background): “The sexes are separate, normally with an equal sex ratio, except in the parthenogenetic marbled crayfish or ‘marmorkrebs’, an all-female stock recently determined as Procambarus fallax (Hagen) (Martin et al. 2010) that has arisen in captivity (Scholtz et al.”