Short Communications Open access

Evidence for an additional population of the cave-dwelling squat lobster Munidopsis polymorpha in Lanzarote (Canary Islands): implications for management and conservation

Authors

Published
4 February 2026
Section
Short Communications
DOI
10.4081/jlimnol.2026.2248

Abstract

The endangered anchialine squat lobster Munidopsis polymorpha is restricted to northern Lanzarote. To understand genetic isolation and conservation risks, we genotyped 26 individuals at eight microsatellite loci from four sites in La Corona lava tube and Charcos de Luis. Lava tube sites shared most alleles and were effectively undifferentiated, whereas Charcos de Luis harbored nine private alleles, the highest allelic richness, and clear differentiation from the lava tube complex. We detected no Hardy-Weinberg deviations among testable locus x site combinations and no linkage disequilibrium. These results are consistent with two candidate management units: La Corona lava tube and Charcos de Luis. We outline genomic priorities to guide future conservation plans. To account for our reduced sampling size, we screened for null alleles and repeated the analyses on a reduced set of loci passing conservative quality filters, obtaining congruent patterns of differentiation.

Keywords

Edited by

Federico Marrone, Department of Biological, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Palermo, Italy

Supporting Agencies

Gobierno de Canarias, FEDER 2014-2020

Data Availability Statement

The per-individual allele table and raw electropherograms are available at github.com/amartinezgarcia/Munidopsis_microsatelites

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