My 2 cents: Although not proven to be impossible, it is unlikely that species with the
Palaemonetes genus (as currently described) will interbreed (produce offspring). It's even been shown that offspring of the same estuarine
Palaemonetes species collected from geographically distinct areas generate less fit offspring than the same species from the same locale(!):
http://estuariesandcoasts.org/cdrom/EST ... 65_174.pdf
Also...
"In the present study, interspecific breeding between
Palaemonetes pugio and
P. vulgaris was not successful. Eggs were not retained and no larvae were produced. Females extruded eggs in what appeared to be a normal fashion, but retained them no longer than three days."
"Interspecific breeding attempts involving
P. intermedius failed also to yield mature eggs or larvae. These results, however, are somewhat tentative, because experimental controls were not uniformly maintained.
Hybridization research under more controlled conditions, similar to the current conditions for crosses of
P. pugio and
P. vulgaris is recommended."
So anyway, if there is doubt that the estuarine
Palaemonetes sp. can interbreed then it's even more unlikely that
P. paludosus or
P. kadiakensis (ie,
primarily freshwater species) could interbreed with
P. pugio/vulgaris/intermedius. I don't think you'd find any evidence of that...one would suspect this is so by observing the differences in egg and larval development in the aquarium between
P. paludosus/kadiakensis vs.
P. pugio,etc.
