Potamonautes
# Potamonautes

Potamonautes is a genus of African freshwater crabs in the family Potamonautidae. It is both the most widespread and most diverse genus of African freshwater crabs, including more than half the species of this continent. They are found in most freshwater habitats of the African mainland and some species are semi-terrestrial.

## Species

It contains the following species:

* Potamonautes adeleae Bott, 1968
* Potamonautes alluaudi (Bouvier, 1921)
* Potamonautes aloysiisabaudiae (Nobili, 1906)
* Potamonautes amalerensis (Rathbun, 1935)
* Potamonautes antheus (Colosi, 1920)
* Potamonautes anchietae (Brito Capello, 1871)
* Potamonautes ballayi (A. Milne-Edwards, 1886)
* Potamonautes bayonianus (Brito Capello, 1864)
* Potamonautes berardi (Audouin, 1826)
* Potamonautes bipartitus (Hilgendorf, 1898)
* Potamonautes brincki (Bott, 1960)
* Potamonautes calcaratus (Gordon, 1929)
* Potamonautes clarus Gouws, Stewart & Coke, 2000
* Potamonautes depressus (Krauss, 1843)
* Potamonautes dybowskii (Rathbun, 1905)
* Potamonautes dentatus Stewart, Coke & Cook, 1995
* Potamonautes didieri (Rathbun, 1904)
* Potamonautes dubius (Brito Capello, 1864)
* Potamonautes ecorssei (Marchand, 1902)
* Potamonautes emini (Hilgendorf, 1892)
* Potamonautes gerdalensis Bott, 1955
* Potamonautes granularis Daniels, Stewart & Gibbons, 1998
* Potamonautes idjiwiensis (Chace, 1942)
* Potamonautes ignestii (Parisi, 1923)
* Potamonautes infravallatus (Hilgendorf, 1898)
* Potamonautes isimangaliso (Peer & Gouws, 2015)
* Potamonautes jeanneli (Bouvier, 1921)
* Potamonautes johnstoni (Miers, 1885)
* Potamonautes kensleyi Cumberlidge & Tavares, 2006
* Potamonautes langi (Rathbun, 1921)
* Potamonautes licoensis Daniels, Bittencourt-Silva, Muianga & Bayliss, 2020
* Potamonautes lirrangensis (Rathbun, 1904)
* Potamonautes lividus Gouws, Stewart & Reavell, 2001
* Potamonautes loashiensis Bott, 1955
* Potamonautes loveni (Colosi, 1924)
* Potamonautes loveridgei (Rathbun, 1933)
* Potamonautes lueboensis (Rathbun, 1904)
* Potamonautes machadoi Bott, 1964
* Potamonautes macrobrachii Bott, 1953
* Potamonautes margaritarius (A. Milne-Edwards, 1869)
* Potamonautes montivagus (Chace, 1953)
* Potamonautes mutandensis (Chace, 1953)
* Potamonautes neumanni (Hilgendorf, 1898)
* Potamonautes niloticus (H. Milne-Edwards, 1837)
* Potamonautes obesus (A. Milne-Edwards, 1868)
* Potamonautes odhneri (Colosi, 1924)
* Potamonautes paecilei (A. Milne-Edwards, 1886)
* Potamonautes parvicorpus Daniels, Stewart & Burmeister, 2001
* Potamonautes parvispina Stewart, 1997
* Potamonautes perlatus (H. Milne-Edwards, 1837)
* Potamonautes preparvus (Rathbun, 1921)
* Potamonautes pilosus (Hilgendorf, 1898)
* Potamonautes platycentron Hilgendorf, 1897
* Potamonautes platynotus (Cunnington, 1907)
* Potamonautes punctatus Bott, 1955
* Potamonautes raybouldi Cumberlidge & Vannini, 2004
* Potamonautes reidi Cumberlidge, 1999
* Potamonautes rodolphianus (Rathbun, 1909)
* Potamonautes rothschildi (Rathbun, 1909)
* Potamonautes rukwanzi Corace, Cumberlidge & Garms, 2001
* Potamonautes schubotzi (Balss, 1914)
* Potamonautes semilunaris Bott, 1955
* Potamonautes senegalensis Bott, 1970
* Potamonautes sidneyi (Rathbun, 1904)
* Potamonautes stanleyensis (Rathbun, 1921)
* Potamonautes suprasulcatus (Hilgendorf, 1898)
* Potamonautes triangulus Bott, 1959
* Potamonautes unispinus Stewart & Cook, 1998
* Potamonautes unisulcatus (Rathbun, 1933)
* Potamonautes walderi (Colosi, 1924)
* Potamonautes warreni (Calman, 1918)
* Potamonautes xiphoidus Reed & Cumberlidge, 2006

One extant species is also known from the fossil record; P. niloticus is abundant in Miocene sediments (6 million years ago) of Lake Albert. Extinct species assigned to Potamonautes are also known from the Late Cretaceous of Niger.

## Distribution

Potamonautes are restricted to Sub-Saharan Africa and the Nile Basin, with more than 30 species in East Africa (none on Madagascar, the Seychelles and other offshore African islands), more than 20 in the Congo Basin region, 20 in Southern Africa, 6 in northeast Africa and 5 in West Africa. Although the genus includes common and widespread species, others have very restricted ranges of occurrence. For example, P. dubious is found only in limited parts of the Kunene River and upper Zambezi River in Southern Africa.

