Meet Mhlophe. He is divorced, white and lives in Pondoland.
A low-key character, he did not even have a name until he was spotted sidling along in an Mbotyi forest.
He was collared by Stellenbosch student Theo Busschau during a field research project in September in the area, situated between Port St Johns and Port Edward, and Busschau took the “pearly white crab that shimmers in the presence of light” back to the study base.
Project leader molecular taxonomist Prof Savel Daniels realised the crab was something unusual and returned the next day to the stream where Busschau had found it.
He captured several more specimens and, back in the university laboratory and using DNA sequence analysis, was able to show that the creature – subsequently named Mhlophe (white in isiXhosa), in honour of the Xhosa people of Mbotyi – was new to science.
Daniels said on Tuesday the discovery pointed to probable mega-rich biodiversity in forests in the area, boosted further by endemism, where range was tightly restricted, and this had socio-economic and environmental ramifications for neighbouring impoverished communities.
“If something as relatively bulky as a crab has remained undiscovered this long, the likelihood of many more smaller animals that can’t disperse from these Pondoland forest nodes is very high and we’re probably looking at biodiversity hotspots.”
This natural bounty could be used to help neighbouring impoverished communities and should be used to guide any development plans like the proposal to mine the nearby Xolobeni dunes and the project to build a new toll road through the area, he said.
“Even if this particular Mbotyi forest is not hit by the road, others that are targeted and which are probably also home to Potamonautes mhlophe will be affected.”
Mhlophe could also bump up existing community tourism initiatives, he said.
“There are already birdwatching and fishing trails and if guides could become expert generally in the big and small wonders of the area that would be good to expand the industry and to create more sustainable jobs.”
Daniels said little scientific exploration and sampling had taken place in Eastern Cape forests until now.
The research by his team was part of a comprehensive three-year project within the Foundational Biodiversity Information Programme.
Funded by the National Research Foundation and managed in collaboration with the SA National Biodiversity Institute, the programme is aimed at using environmental knowledge to benefit society.
Daniels said mhlophe was an example of “sympatry” where it lived alongside a known rust-brown crab species Potamonautes sidneyi
“Like a divorced couple who still share the same house, the two related [but genetically distinct] populations are sympatric, because they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another without breeding.”