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Issue: Vol. 5271 No. 2: 26 Apr. 2023
Type: Article
Published: 2023-04-26
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5271.2.4
Page range: 271-293
Abstract views: 270
PDF downloaded: 15

Disentangling cryptic species in Parastenocarididae (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) with an integrative approach: the case of Stammericaris similior sp. nov. and Stammericaris destillans Bruno & Cottarelli 2017

Research and Innovation Centre; Fondazione Edmund Mach; Via E. Mach 1; 38098 San Michele all’Adige (TN); Italy.
Department for Innovation in Biological; Agro-food and Forest Systems; Tuscia University; Largo dell’Università snc; 01100 Viterbo; Italy.
Department of Biological; Geological and Environmental Sciences; Catania University; Via Androne 81; 95124 Catania; Italy.
Department of Biological; Geological and Environmental Sciences; Catania University; Via Androne 81; 95124 Catania; Italy.
Department of Biological; Geological and Environmental Sciences; Catania University; Via Androne 81; 95124 Catania; Italy.
Department of Biological; Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies; University of Palermo; Via Archirafi 18; 90123 Palermo; Italy.; NBFC; National Biodiversity Future Center; 90133 Palermo; Italy.
Department of Biological; Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies; University of Palermo; Via Archirafi 18; 90123 Palermo; Italy.
Crustacea COI gene epikarst cave fauna crustacean stygofauna

Abstract

Stammericaris similior sp. nov. is described combining light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and genetic barcoding. The new species was collected from rimstone pools in Scrivilleri Cave, a cave in Sicily with so far unexplored microcrustacean fauna. The new species is particularly interesting because it is morphologically very similar to Stammericaris destillans, an epikarstic parastenocaridid endemic to a different Sicilian cave; however, the phylogenetic analysis based on the mitochondrial COI gene of sixteen parastenocaridids shows that these two Stammericaris are two distinct species, with an uncorrected p-distance of 22.9, and the sequences of Stammericaris similior sp. nov. cluster together in a well-supported monophyletic clade, with two different haplotypes. To our knowledge, the presence of different species of almost identical morphology had not been recorded before for the genus Stammericaris. The integrated molecular and morphological analysis, the latter conducted with the support of SEM, allows disentangling the affinities of the new species and identifying a few distinctive characters: the males of the new species are characterized by the caudal rami shorter than the anal somite; the morphology of the P3, which is thin and slightly arched, with three proximal spinules on exp-1; the peculiar structure of the P4 enp; the P4 basis ornamented with two spinules of different length, the one closest to the endopod being the shortest one, and a half-moon shaped lamella. The new species differs from S. destillans for its larger size, the presence of: three spinules, instead of two, on the P3 exp-1; the half-moon shaped lamella on the P4 basis; a row of spinules along the inner margin of P4 exp-1. We also provide data on the ecology and distribution of the new species, a list of the other copepod species collected, and a dichotomic key for the males of all species presently assigned to the genus.

 

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