Abstract
Clibanarius, a genus of hermit crabs, is one of the most diverse genera within Diogenidae. However, studies on the phylogeny within Clibanarius is very limited. We reconstruct the molecular phylogeny of the genus Clibanarius based on two mitochondrial (16S rRNA and COI) and two nuclear protein-coding (NaK and PEPCK) genes using a multigene phylogenetic approach. Eleven selected Clibanarius species from the Indo-West Pacific are analyzed and the Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses produced identical results in topology. Results suggest that C. rutilus and C. infraspinatus are more closely related to each other than to C. snelliusi, and C. striolatus shows a close relationship to C. longitarsus. The close association of C. merguiensis with C. englaucus and C. humilis is strongly supported by the divergence of C. virescens from them. Our phylogenetic results contradict the morphological classification scheme proposed for Clibanarius and indicate that the relative length of dactyls and propodi is not phylogenetically significant in Clibanarius. In addition, we speculate that the morphological characteristic of the median cleft of the telson might be phylogenetically important for Clibanarius.
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