DIVERSITY AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY OF INLAND-WATER OSTRACODA (CRUSTACEA) IN ISRAEL (LEVANT)

ABSTRACT

The Israeli inland-water ostracod fauna numbers 53 named species belonging to 29 genera and comprising 15 subfamilies. The most diverse genera are Heterocypris and Ilyocypris, while the families Candonidae (most common in the Palearctic) and Cypridopsinae (most common in the Ethiopian) are relatively poorly represented. The fauna are circumtropical and cosmopolitan (21%), Holarctic-Palearctic (49%), Ethiopian and Mediterranean (15%), Oriental (6%), and endemic species (9%). Of the original five endemics described to date, three occur in Lake Kinneret, one has Ethiopian affinities but occurs in a northern river, and the status of the fifth species is still unknown. The Palearctic fauna is most likely Quaternary in origin. Four periods of Ethiopian invasion could be distinguished, two of which (end of Miocene and end of Pliocene) were probably the most important. No truly Tethyan elements (Miocene) could be detected in the extant inland-water ostracod fauna, as the only species with genuine marine affinities is most likely a relict of Pliocene marine transgressions.