Epithelphusa

Villalobos, José Luis & Alvarez, Fernando, 2010, Phylogenetic analysis of the Mexican freshwater crabs of the tribe Pseudothelphusini (Decapoda: Brachyura: Pseudothelphusidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 160 (3), pp. 457-481 : 472

EPITHELPHUSA

The two species of Epithelphusa (node 1) were excluded from the tribe Pseudothelphusini because of the presence of a very characteristic lateral process, formed by three large tooth-like projections (characters 73–76), in both. Their relationships with other species in the Pseudothelphusinae must be explored, taking into account all the tribes in the subfamily. Another salient feature is that the two species of Epithelphusa do not form a single clade: they appear in separate branches (node 2), each one of them supported by their respective autapomorphies, indicating a strong differentiation between them and the need to accommodate them in separate genera.

Rodríguez (1982) placed Epithelphusa in the Pseudothelphusini because of the presence of a welldeveloped distal lobe of the caudo-marginal process, which he refered to as the marginal process situated on top of the mesial process, and mentioned that this character separated it from the Potamocarcinini. The same author hypothesized that Epithelphusa could derive from Elsalvadoria ; however, the gonopod morphology does not fit the characters that define the Potamocarcinini.