New records for the South African diaptomid fauna with a complementary description of Paradiaptomus lamellatus Sars (Copepoda, Diaptomidae)

Abstract

Information on the freshwater calanoid fauna of South Africa is incomplete. Recent collections from several environmental sites in the Western Cape Province of South Africa yielded new records of diaptomid copepods. Material was collected from more than 30 different localities. Species recorded from these sites were: Lovenula simplex Kiefer, Paradiaptomus lamellatus Sars, P. hameri Rayner, Metadiaptomus purcelli (Sars) and M. capensis (Sars). New information on the distributional and ecological ranges of these species is provided as well. Paradiaptomus lamellatus, the type species of the genus, was described more than a century ago by G. O. Sars (1895) based on material collected in South Africa by W. F. Purcell. Although in recent years other closely related Paradiaptomus species have been described using a wider set of characters, P. lamellatus has not been redescribed. The type specimens of this species are lost; hence, in the light of current taxonomic and biogeographical knowledge, it is important that the type species of Paradiaptomus (P. lamellatus) be redescribed. This redescription was based on male and female specimens of P. lamellatus collected from Groot Rondevlei, a brown water vlei located on the Cape peninsula of South Africa. New characters are described and depicted including details of the mouth appendages, furcal rami, and male and female fifth legs. Comments on intraspecific variability and habitat preference are included.

Keywords:

• Calanoida
• copepods
• new records
• freshwater fauna
• biogeography
• limnobiology
• redescription
• South Africa

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Genevieve Jones (Freshwater Research Institute, University of Cape Town) for collecting the material from the Western Cape Province, South Africa and to Dr Nikolai N. Smirnov (Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences) for sending us by way of Alexey Kotov the copepod specimens. Part of this work was developed during the sabbatical leave (2002–2003) of the first author (E.S.-M.) in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, supported by CONACYT (Ref. 010378-2002), the State Government of Quintana Roo, and the Fulbright Program for Research, under the sponsorship of Dr Frank Ferrari. Chad Walter processed our deposit of the specimens in the USNM collection. Two anonymous reviewers made valuable comments that greatly improved the first version of this manuscript.