Morphological and molecular evidence support four new Liberonautes Bott, 1955 (Decapoda, Potamonautidae, Liberonautinae) species of freshwater crabs from Sierra Leone, West Africa Author Mvogo Ndongo, Pierre A. Author von Rintelen, Thomas Author Clark, Paul F. Author Cumberlidge, Neil text Crustaceana 2024 2024-08-15 97 709 731 https://doi.org/10.1163/15685403-bja10410 journal article 308816 10.1163/15685403-bja10410 36af8d68-4bca-47d0-b437-3f25405f4a46 15090630

TABLE II Morphological and meristic differences between the four new Liberonautes species

Characters	L. kasonko sp. nov.	L. njala sp. nov.	L. schubarti sp.	L. sugarloaf sp.
			nov.	nov.
Adult size range	CW 46.5 mm	CW 52-66 mm	CW 22-23 mm	CW 51-75 mm
Carapace; postfrontal	Distinct,	Distinct,	Distinct,	Distinct,
crest	completely	incomplete, not	completely	completely
	traversing	traversing	traversing	traversing
	carapace, meeting	carapace, lateral	carapace, meeting	carapace, meeting
	lateral carapace	ends only reaching	lateral carapace	lateral carapace
	margins (figs. 3A,	cervical sulcus	margins (figs. 3C,	margins (figs. 3D,
	5A).	(figs. 3B, 5B).	5C).	5D).
Carapace;	With carinae	Smooth (figs. 2B,	With carinae	Smooth (figs. 2D,
anterolateral	(figs. 2A, 3A).	3B).	(figs. 2C, 3C).	3D).
surface texture
Carapace;	All deep (figs. 2A,	All deep (figs. 2B,	Faint, almost	All deep (figs. 2D,
semicircular,	3A).	3B).	obscure (figs. 2C,	3D).
urogastric,			3C).
cardiac, cervical,
transverse
branchial grooves
Carapace; exorbital	Small, distinct	Low, blunt	Small, granular	Medium sized, well
tooth	(figs. 2A, 3A, 4A,	(figs. 2B, 3B, 4B,	(figs. 2C, 3C, 4C,	defined (figs. 2D,
	5A).	5B).	5C).	3D, 4D, 5D).
Carapace;	With carinae	Medium-sized	With carinae	Medium-sized
intermediate	(figs. 2A, 3A, 4A,	triangular (figs. 2B,	(figs. 2C, 3C, 4C,	triangular (figs. 2D,
tooth on	5A).	3B, 4B, 5B).	5C).	3D, 4D, 5D).
anterolateral
margin
Carapace;	Granular (figs. 2A,	Small, distinct	Granular (figs. 2C,	Granular (figs. 2D,
epibranchial	3A, 4A, 5A).	(figs. 2B, 3B, 4B,	3C, 4C, 5C).	3D, 4D, 5D).
tooth on carapace		5B).
anterolateral
margin
Carapace;	With carinae	Smooth (fig. 5B).	With carinae	Smooth (fig. 5D).
branchiostegite	(fig. 5A).		(fig. 5C).
subhepatic region
surface texture
Major cheliped;	Gently curved	Highly arched	Gently curved	Gently curved
dactylus	leaving narrow	leaving wide	leaving narrow	leaving narrow
morphology	interspace when	interspace when	interspace when	interspace when
	closed (fig. 6B).	closed (fig. 6F).	closed (fig. 6K).	closed (fig. 6P).
G1TA length	Long, (ca. half as	Long, (ca. half as	Medium ca.	Long, (ca. half as
	long as G1SA)	long as G1SA)	two-fifths as long	long as G1SA)
	G1TA/G1SA = 0.5	G1TA/G1SA = 0.5	as G1SA,	G1TA/G1SA = 0.5
	(fig. 7A, B).	(fig. 7D, E).	G1TA/G1SA = 0.4	(fig. 7J, K).
			(fig. 7G, H).
G1SA lateral margin	Distinctly curved	Distinctly curved	Gently curved	Distinctly curved
	inward (fig. 7A, B).	inward (fig. 7D, E).	inward (fig. 7G, H).	inward (fig. 7J, K).