Description of a new species of Caridina (Crustacea: Decapoda: Atyidae) from two Micronesian islands (Guam and Babeldaob)

<p class="rtejustify">During field trips to Guam and Babeldaob Islands in Micronesia, freshwater shrimps were sampled and assigned either to <em>Caridina brachydactyla</em> De Man, 1908 or <em>C. mertoni</em> J. Roux, 1911 (Decapoda: Atyidae), following previous inventories. In combining morphological data with a genetical analysis, it appeared that all the specimens belonged to a new species, <em>Caridina variabilis sp</em>. <em>nov.</em>, here described with its distribution. The status of this new species is clarified and finally, neither <em>C. brachydactyla</em>, nor <em>C. mertoni</em> occur in these two islands. DNA sequences of 16S were obtained from the syntypes of <em>C. mertoni</em>.</p>