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Abstract
Long-standing taxonomic problems involving the Acanthocyclops robustus–vernalis complex of freshwater cyclopoids have not been resolved. After Kiefer's designation of A. robustus Sars as an older synonym of Acanthocycops americanus Marsh, a lot of data indicating their differentiation have been accumulated. To handle this taxonomical problem, representative populations from type localities of the respective taxa and from other European and US sites were analyzed morphologically and genetically using mitochondrial COI and 12S rRNA. Molecular-genetic analysis revealed that the three species described at the end of the nineteenth century: A. robustus, A. americanus and A. vernalis are well-separated species with genetic distances between them of around 20% for both genes. Within A. vernalis we also found substantial genetic variability (5–10%). The recently described species A. trajani corresponds to A. americanus, and A. einslei to A. robustus. A. americanus is re-described and its re-establishment as a valid species is suggested. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:68FC2C52-54FF-417D-9057-7B822BC7F15A
Acknowledgements
The special role of Prof. S. Dodson in the success of this study should be mentioned. He collected very important type material for molecular-genetic analyses from the terra typica and other USA localities and sent these to us a few days before his tragic passing away. We are also grateful to several colleagues who provided us with material: Dr V. Ivanenko, Prof. H.C. Fernando, Dr E. Strelezkaya. The study was supported by the Spanish MICINN project CGL2009-12229 and by the bilateral Russia–Ukraine grant on copepod sibling species and an Academic Biodiversity grant from Russian Academy of Sciences.