''Cherax holthuisi'' is a species of

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...

from the Bird's Head Peninsula in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

. It grows to a total length of and is typically pink, orange or yellow in wild specimens. It was described in 2006 after animals circulating in the aquarium trade could not be assigned to any known species.

Description

The total length of ''Cherax holthuisi'' is . In the wild, it is pink, orange or pale yellow, although blue varieties are also sold in the aquarium trade. It is chiefly differentiated from the other species in the genus ''

Cherax ''Cherax'', commonly known as yabby/yabbies in Australia, is the most widespread genus of fully aquatic crayfish in the Southern Hemisphere. Various species of cherax may be found in both still and flowing bodies of freshwater across most of Au ...

'' by the form of the rostrum, the shape of the claws and the small size of its eyes. In ''C. holthuisi'', the rostrum has two indentations on each side, and several indistinct lobes; in most other species, there are 3–8 teeth on the rostrum.

Distribution and habitat

In the wild, ''Cherax holthuisi'' has only been recorded from Aitinjo Lake () on the Bird's Head Peninsula at the western end of

, in the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

n province of West Papua. The lake is long and up to wide, and is surrounded by steep mountains. ''C. holthuisi'' has been listed as

Data Deficient A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

, pending better knowledge of its biology.

Taxonomy

Specimens of ''Cherax holthuisi'' were collected in 1952, when M. Boeseman bought nine individuals from locals on the shores of Lake Aitinjo. They were deposited in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (now part of

Naturalis Naturalis Biodiversity Center ( nl, Nederlands Centrum voor Biodiversiteit Naturalis) is a national museum of natural history and a research center on biodiversity in Leiden, Netherlands. It was named the European Museum of the Year 2021. Alth ...

) as lots ''RMNH D 51503'' and ''RMNH D 51504''. The species remained undescribed, however, until

Christian Lukhaup Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...

and Reinhard Pekny attempted to identify some exotic crayfish then on the market in Germany. Their specimens did not accord with any of the nine species described from New Guinea by Lipke Holthuis, but did match Boeseman's undescribed specimens. Lukhaup and Pekny therefore described the new species in a 2006 publication in ''

Zoologische Mededelingen ''Zoologische Mededelingen'' was a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal publishing papers and monographs on animal systematics. The publisher was the National Museum of Natural History Naturalis in the Netherlands. The first issue appeared ...

'' and called it ''Cherax holthuisi'' in honour of Lipke Holthuis. One

juvenile Juvenile may refer to: *Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood *Juvenile (organism) *Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper * ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film * ''Juvenile'' (2017 film) *Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...

was later discovered among specimens described as the new species ''

Cherax boesemani ''Cherax boesemani'' is a species of crayfish from West Papua in Indonesia (Ajamaru Lakes and the Ajamaru River, which belong to the Kais River drainage and Kepala Burung or Vogelkop Peninsulas). It is popular as a freshwater aquarium pet ac ...

'' in 2008.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2962703 Parastacidae Crustaceans of Indonesia Fauna of Western New Guinea Crustaceans described in 2006