Abstract
A new species of Acanthocyclops is decribed from an Ecological Reserve in Mexico City. Acanthocyclops eduardoi sp. nov. was assigned as a member of the Acanthocyclops vernalis–robustus complex and it differs from its congeners by a combination of characters including 17 segmented antennules, the ornamentation of spinules on the ventral and dorsal surface of caudal ramus, a short dorsal seta (0.47–0.56), an elongated third segment of endopodite of fourth leg (length/width 3.10–3.80) and, the length/width ratio of caudal ramus ranging from 4.30 to 4.35. The male of A. eduardoi sp. nov. shows a unique ornamentation pattern on the coxal plate of the fourth leg. The new species resembles other species such as Acanthocyclops marceloi, Acanthocyclops caesariatus, Acanthocyclops brevispinosus, Acanthocyclops trajani and Acanthocyclops einslei. The number of species of the genus in the Mexican Plateau is increased so the diversity of the genus in this biogeographic province may be underestimated and deserves further study. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:32A9F42E-5C7F-4149-920E-E14A91C719FD
Key words:
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge Dr Antonio Lot Helgueras (Executive Secretary of the Ecological Reserve of Pedregal de San Ángel), Guadalupe Miranda Arce, Agustín Quiroz Flores, Lauraceli Romero Ortíz and Santos Gómez Herrera for all their efforts and support provided during the fieldwork. We deeply appreciate the comments and revision of a previous version of the manuscript by E. Suárez-Morales. Rosa Ma. Hernández (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur) deposited the specimens in the Zooplankton Collection of ECOSUR. We acknowledge the comments of two anonymous reviewers that improved the content of the manuscript. This work was presented as poster in the 11th International Conference on Copepoda held in Mérida, Mexico by the second author.