''Potamonautes choloensis'' is a species of freshwater

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

in the family

Potamonautidae Potamonautidae is a family of freshwater crabs endemic to Africa, including the islands of Madagascar, the Seychelles, Zanzibar, Mafia, Pemba, Bioko, São Tomé, Príncipe and Sherbro Island. It comprises 18 extant genera and 138 extant species. ...

Range and habitat

''Potamonautes choloensis'' is native to mountain rivers and streams in portions of Malawi, Tanzania, and Mozambique. In has been found in the

Nyika Plateau The Nyika Plateau lies in northern Malawi, with a small portion in north eastern Zambia. Most of it lies at elevations of between , the highest point being at Nganda Peak. It is roughly a diamond in shape, with a long north–south axis of about ...

Zomba Plateau The Zomba Plateau, also called the Zomba Massif, is a mountain of the Shire Highlands in southern Malawi. Its total area is about , with a highest point of . The plateau is roughly pear-shaped. The southern portion is known as Zomba Mountain, a ...

, and

Mulanje Massif The Mulanje Massif, also known as Mount Mulanje, is a large inselberg in southern Malawi. Sapitwa Peak, the highest point on the massif at 3,002 m, is the highest point in Malawi. It lies 65 km east of Blantyre, rising sharply from the su ...

of Malawi, the mountains of southwestern Tanzania bordering

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

, and on

Mount Mabu Mount Mabu is a mountain in northern Mozambique, famous for its old-growth rain forest. Mount Mabu is approximately high and the forest covers about . While well known locally, the Mount Mabu forest and its extremely diverse wildlife were unkn ...

and

Mount Inago Mount Inago, also known as Serra Inago, is a mountain in northern Mozambique. It is located in Nampula Province, 50 km northeast of Mount Namuli. The plant communities on the mountain include woodlands, generally below 1000 meters elevation, riv ...

, isolated

inselberg An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...

s in northern Mozambique.Savel R. Daniels, Julian Bayliss (2012). Neglected refugia of biodiversity: mountainous regions in Mozambique and Malawi yield two novel freshwater crab species (Potamonautidae: Potamonautes), ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'', Volume 164, Issue 3, March 2012, Pages 498–509, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2011.00773.x Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

is mountain rivers and streams. It is found between 1,829 and 2,134 meters elevation on the Nyika Plateau, at 1,981 meters near

Rumphi Rumphi is the capital of the Rumphi District (Rumphi Boma) in the Northern Region of Malawi. It is a lively town with a market which serves the widespread farming community. Rumphi is noted for the kindness of the people (it is even rude to pa ...

Nyika National Park Nyika National Park is Malawi’s largest national park, with an area of 3200 km2 (1250 mile2). Location and road access The park covers practically the whole of the Nyika Plateau in northern Malawi, about 480 km north of Lilongwe and 60 km ...

, at 1,800 meters on the Zomba Plateau, up to 2,500 meters on Chambe Peak in the Mulanje Massif, and at 1,700 meters on Mount Mabu.

References

Arthropods of Malawi Arthropods of Mozambique Arthropods of Tanzania Freshwater crustaceans of Africa Potamoidea Crustaceans described in 1953 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{crab-stub