NOTES ON THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF 

 BRANCHINECTA AND THEIR HABITATS. 



H. L. SHANTZ. 



STUDIES FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY, THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA, 

 UNDER THE DIRECTION OF HENRY B. WARD, No. 62. 



Three species of Branchinecta have been recorded for North 

 America : B. paludosa (Miiller) Verrill has been reported from 

 Labrador and Greenland. This is an arctic species and is found 

 also in northern Europe and in Siberia. B. coloradensis Packard 

 and B. Linda/ill Packard have been found in the United States. 



Of the last two species B. coloradensis is the better known. It 

 has been found in Colorado, where it occurs in great numbers, 

 and is recorded for several different localities, all of which, how- 

 ever, are near the center of the state. The original collec- 

 tions were made " near Twin Lakes Creek " south of Leadville, at 

 an elevation of about 3,800 m. (Packard, 1874:621). Later it was 

 taken near Gray's Peak not far from Georgetown at an altitude of 

 about 3,658 m. and at Weston's Pass southeast of Leadville at an 

 elevation of 3,557 m. (Packard, 1883 : 339). After an interval of 

 2 1 years it has been recorded recently from Dead Lake in the 

 Pike's Peak region at an elevation of 3,340 m. (Ward, 1904 : 139). 



B. LindaJili was collected first in a pool at Wallace, Kansas, 

 by Professor Joshua Lindahl, and described and named by 

 Packard (1874 : 339-340). Since then, Lafler and Pearse (1898) 

 reported " five or six " specimens from De Witt, Nebraska, and 

 Beardsley (1902 : 43) records "one female with eggs" from a 

 temporary pool near Greeley, Colorado. Accordingly this spe- 

 cies occurs at a much lower elevation than B. coloradensis. 



During the summer of 1904 the writer collected 122 adults 

 and many larvae of B. coloradensis from Dead Lake, in the Pike's 

 Peak region. Nine specimens were taken from the same Lake 

 on August 12, 1903. 



On October 23, 1904, Professor Aven Nelson collected 16 speci- 

 mens of B. LindaJili at Laramie Hills near Laramie, Wyoming, at an 



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