Description of Speleophria mestrovi sp. nov., a new copepod (Misophrioida) from an anchialine cave in the Adriatic Sea

Abstract

A new copepod species, Speleophria mestrovi, collected from an anchialine cave on Vis Island (Croatia) is described. This is the first report describing a misophrioid copepod, thought to be a Tethyan relict, found in an Adriatic anchialine cave. The new species is distinguished from other Speleophriids by combination of the following features: prosome is five-segmented; the urosome has five somites in females and six in male; genital double-somite is symmetrical and is slightly longer than it is wide; caudal rami are symmetrical, seta I is well developed; the antennules of both sexes are symmetrical, that of the female is 21 and of the male is 24-segmented; there is a bulb-shaped process on the first antennular segment; the antennal exopod is six-segmented; the maxillule displays 14 armature elements on the praecoxal arthrite and the basal exite is unarmed; the fifth legs are symmetrical, four-segmented and uniramous; and the distal segment in males and females is armed with three and four elements, respectively.

Keywords:

• Adriatic Sea
• anchialine caves
• Copepoda
• Misophrioida
• Stygofauna

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Branko Jalzić from the Croatian Natural History Museum (Zagreb) and members of the Croatian Bio-Speleological Society in Zagreb for collecting the material upon which this work was based. Many thanks to Dr.sc. Nikola Tvrtković for his supportive preliminary investigations of anchialine caves along the eastern Adriatic coast. I would also like to thank Prof. Geoffrey A. Boxshall and the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions on the improvement of this paper. This research was supported by the Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport of the Republic of Croatia under the project ‘Role of Plankton Communities in the Energy and Matter Flow in the Adriatic Sea’ (No. 001-00113077-0845).

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark