Morphological and molecular analyses reveal a new species of stygobitic amphipod in the genus Crangonyx (Crustacea: Crangonyctidae) from Jackson County, Florida, with a redescription of Crangonyx floridanus and notes on its taxonomy and biogeography

ABSTRACT

Crangonyx manubrium, a new stygobitic species, is described from hypogean localities in Jackson County, Florida. This analysis is based on detailed morphometric and genetic comparisons of Jackson County Cave populations with epigean populations of Crangonyx floridanus, including paratypes from Highlands Hammock State Park, the type locality of C. floridanus. The original description of C. floridanus was partially based on a population from Gerard’s Cave, in Jackson County, which is now assigned to C. manubrium n. sp. Crangonyx floridanus is morphologically redescribed based on paratype material from Highlands Hammock State Park, Highlands County, Florida and a population from Hogtown Creek in Gainesville, Alachua County, Florida. Molecular and morphological analyses show surprising variation across the range of C. floridanus, indicating it may represent a species complex.

http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3E17B35E-22C7-46F9-ADD0-2B33557DAED2

KEYWORDS:

• 18S rDNA
• 28S rDNA
• 16S rDNA
• caves
• Floridan aquifer
• Crangonyx manubrium

Acknowledgements

We sincerely thank Michael and Bonnie Stine and JT Barker for assistance with collection efforts at Hole in the Wall and Twin Caves, Paul and Deanne Moler for collections at Pond/China Caves and the Well adjacent to Highway 69, as well as Chris Hawthorne and the staff at Florida Caverns State Park. We would like to thank the Canadian Museum of Nature for the loan of Crangonyx floridanus specimens. We would also like to thank the staff at Cave Adventurers for their professionalism and sharing their local knowledge. We are grateful to Dr Richard Long for his advice on the molecular aspects of this study. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this project was by the State of Florida, Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission [state wildlife grant number 15044], US Fish and Wildlife Service [federal award number FL-T-F15AF00394].