217
RAFFLES BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGY 2019
The vampire crabs of Java, with descriptions of five new species from
Mount Halimun Salak National Park, West Java, Indonesia (Crustacea:
Brachyura: Sesarmidae: Geosesarma)
Peter K. L. Ng
1
& Daisy Wowor
2
Abstract. Six species of vampire crabs, Geosesarma noduliferum (De Man, 1892), G. confertum (Ortmann, 1894),
G. rouxi (Serène, 1968a), G. bicolor Ng & Davie, 1995, G. dennerle Ng, Schubart & Lukhaup, 2015, and G. hagen
Ng, Schubart & Lukhaup, 2015, are known thus far from Java, Indonesia. All are endemic to the island. Surveys in
and around Mount Halimun Salak National Park in West Java showed that the sesarmid crab fauna for the island
is much richer, and five new species are described. The new taxa are described, figured, and compared with their
closest congeners. Two poorly known species, G. confertum and G. rouxi are also re-diagnosed and figured. A key
to the known species of Geosesarma from Java is also provided.
Key words. semiterrestrial crab, Indonesia, Java, taxonomy, new species, protected areas
RAFFLES BULLETIN OF ZOOLOGY 67: 217–246
Date of publication: 3 April 2019
DOI: 10.26107/RBZ-2019-0018
http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0656D7C5-0498-40B6-9348-284800EE671D
© National University of Singapore
ISSN 2345-7600 (electronic) | ISSN 0217-2445 (print)
1
Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, Faculty of Science, National University
of Singapore, 2 Conservatory Drive, Singapore 117377, Republic of Singapore;
Email: peterng@nus.edu.sg
2
Division of Zoology, Research Center for Biology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(LIPI), Jalan Raya Jakarta Bogor Km 46, Cibinong 16911, Indonesia; Email:
daisy_wowor@yahoo.com
*
Both authors contributed equally to this work
INTRODUCTION
The freshwater sesarmid crab fauna of Java has been
increasing studied in recent years, and six species of
Geosesarma De Man, 1892, and two species of Karstarma
Davie & Ng, 2007, are now known (cf. Ng et al., 2015;
Wowor & Ng, 2018). The diversity of Geosesarma in
particular, popularly known as vampire crabs, is especially
high, and some 59 species are now known from the
Andamans, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New
Guinea, Philippines, and Taiwan (Ng, 2017). As most of
these species practice direct development (i.e., their large
eggs hatch into very advanced non-feeding zoeae or as
juvenile crabs (cf. Ng, 1988; Ng & Tan, 1995; Soh, 1969),
many Geosesarma species have very restricted distributions,
with different species sometimes occurring just 10 km from
each site (see Ng et al., 2015), compounding the challenge
for taxonomists.
From West Java, three species are known at present:
G. noduliferum (De Man, 1892) [Bogor], G. confertum
(Ortmann, 1894) [Tjibodas or Gunung Gede], and G. bicolor
Ng & Davie, 1995 [Ujung Kulon,], with two species from
Central Java: G. dennerle Ng, Schubart & Lukhaup, 2015
[Cilacap], and G. hagen Ng, Schubart & Lukhaup, 2015
[Cilacap]; and one species from East Java: G. rouxi (Serène,
1968a) [Poedjon].
Collections in and around Mount Halimun Salak National
Park (or Taman Nasional Gunung Halimun Salak) in West
Java and Banten Provinces in 2015 and 2016 as part of the
Indonesia-German INDOBIOSYS (Indonesian Biodiversity
and Information System) project resulted in a good collection
of Geosesarma specimens. Additional collections were
subsequently made in 2017. A joint study of this material
and other specimens obtained from several previous surveys
around Bogor and Cipanas of Banten Province by the second
author showed that five species are represented, all of which
are new to science. These new species, as well as the current
taxa, are diagnosed, figured and compared with their closest
species. A new genus and new species of gecarcinucid crab
has already been described from near the summit of Mount
Halimun (Ng & Wowor, 2018).
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Material examined is deposited in the Museum Zoologicum
Bogoriense (MZB), Cibinong, Bogor, Indonesia; and the
Zoological Reference Collection (ZRC) of the Lee Kong
Chian Natural History Museum (ex-Raffles Museum of
Biodiversity Research), National University of Singapore.
Indonesian words use in the text are S. or Sungai for river
or stream; Gunung for mountain; Ds. or Desa for village;
Kp. or Kampung for hamlet. The collectors were D. Wowor,
U. Nurhaman, and S. Sauri, which is written as D. Wowor
et al., unless otherwise stated.
Taxonomy & Systematics