Morphological and electrophoretic studies of the palaemonidae (Crustacea) of the Perth Region, Western Australia

Abstract

A reappraisal of the morphological characters currently used to separate the genera Palaemon, Palaemonetes and Macrobrachium reveals that the present system of classification is inadequate to differentiate the species of these genera occurring in the Swan River Estuary, W.A. Since separation on morphological grounds proved to be unreliable, an electrophoretic survey of 17 enzymes at 24 loci was carried out. The results suggest that Palaemonetes australis may be congeneric with Macrobrachium intermedium. The species of Palaemonetes from the Swan River Estuary are genetically dissimilar to P. vulgaris from Nova Scotia, which appears to be phylogenetically closer to Palaemon afinis. A discussion of the affinities and likely oilgins of these species, with emphasis on the anomalous occurrence of Palaemonetes australis in south-western Australia is presented.