Bull. mil. Hist. Mas. Land. (Zool.) 62(2): 83-99 



Issued 28 November 1996 



Rare cyclopoid copepods (Crustacea) from 

 Mediterranean littoral caves 



D. JAUME AND G.A. BOXSHALL 



Department of Zoology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK 



SYNOPSIS. Three cyclopoid copepods are reported from anchihaline cave habitats on Mallorca. Both sexes of Cyclopina esilis 

 Brian are redescribed. Sexual dimorphism in the mandibular exopod. as discovered in C. esilis, has not previously been reported 

 for any cyclopinid. The male of the primitive marine cyclopid Neocyclops (Protoneocyclops) mediterraneus (Kiefer) is described 

 in detail for the first time and the characters distinguishing this species are discussed. Both sexes of Euryte longicauda Philippi 

 are redescribed. The genus Euryte Philippi is briefly reviewed and the characters used to differentiate species are critically 

 reevaluated. It is concluded that all three genera, the cyclopinid genus Cyclopina Claus and the primitive cyclopids Neocyclops 

 Gurney and Euryte, are in urgent need of revision, but that this process will be hampered by the inadequacy of published 

 descriptions and the lack of available type material. 



INTRODUCTION 



Anchihaline cave habitats are rich sources of interesting and unusual 

 crustaceans. Copepods of immense phylogenetic significance have 

 been discovered in such caves in the last decade, including the 

 platycopioid Antrisocopia Fosshagen, the misophrioid 

 Speleophriopsis Jaume & Boxshall, and the calanoid Erebonectes 

 Fosshagen (Fosshagen & Iliffe, 1985; Jaume & Boxshall, 1996). 

 There have been few reports of cyclopoid copepods in anchihaline 

 caves. Recently, however, Rocha & Iliffe (1991, 1994) described a 

 new family of cyclopoids, the Speleoithonidae, and the primitive 

 cyclopid Troglocyclops, from caves on the Bahamas Islands. During 

 our studies of the copepod fauna of Mallorcan caves we discovered 

 numerous cyclopoids, including the three rare species described in 

 this account. All three species were originally described from the 

 Mediterranean Basin. All have been the subject of considerable 

 taxonomic confusion because their original descriptions were inad- 

 equate and we have attempted to clear up some of this confusion at 

 the same time as presenting full redescriptions. 



THE CAVES 



The copepods were collected from four caves located on the East 

 coast of Mallorca, less than 20 m inland. These caves occur in two 

 different types of substratum. Cova 'C de Cala Varques and Es 

 Secret des Moix are in Tortonian (10 Myr BP), coral reef-derived, 

 porous calcarenites and mixing-zone corrosion processes seem to 

 have played an important role in their development. Cova de na 

 Barxa and Cova de na Mitjana are in Triassic, fissured limestones. 

 All these caves have subaerial entrances; the difficulty of access can 

 be deduced from their topographies, published elsewhere (see be- 

 I low). The water conditions varied from cave to cave: In Es Secret des 

 Moix, the sampled lake (that located closest to the entrance) was 

 completely marine (i.e., in water salinity, a detectable swell, the 

 nature of the accompanying fauna), as was the lake in Cova de na 

 Mitjana. Cova 'C de Cala Varques and Cova de na Barxa are typical 

 anchihaline caves (in the sense of Stock et al., 1986), with a thin 

 layer of fresh water on the top of the deeper saline waters of the 

 lakes. 



Sampling was undertaken using meat-baited traps placed at dif- 

 ferent depths in the cave lakes and left for several days, and by using 

 a hand-held plankton net with an extensible handle. The terminology 

 used in the descriptions follows Huys & Boxshall (1991). 



SYSTEMATICS 



Order CYCLOPOIDA Burmeister, 1834 

 Family CYCLOPINIDAE Sars, 1913 

 Subfamily CYCLOPININAE Kiefer, 1927 

 Genus Cyclopina Claus, 1863 



Cyclopina esilis Brian, 1938 



(Figs 1-4) 



Cyclopina cf. kieferi: Herbst (1953; 1962) 



Material examined. Cova de na Mitjana (Capdepera). UTM 

 coordinates: 539.10; 4390.95. Topography published by Gineset al. 

 (1975): 96 individuals, both sexes (BMNH 1995. 1331-1340). 

 Collected by D. Jaume, 17 July 1994. 



ADULT female. Body (Figs 1A, B) cyclopiform, up to 0.37 mm 

 long. Prosome 5-segmented, about 1.7 times longer than urosome. 

 Rostrum developed, oval. Posterolateral margins of cephalosome 

 vaulted. First pedigerous somite free, partially concealed by dorsal 

 and posterolateral extensions of cephalosome. Second to fourth 

 pedigerous somites with evenly rounded posterolateral angles. 

 Urosome 5-segmented, with genital and first abdominal somites 

 completely fused to form genital double-somite. Serrate hyaline frill 

 adorning posterodorsal margin of fifth pedigerous somite, posterior 

 margins of genital double-somite and abdominal somites 2 and 3, 

 and posterolateral margins of anal somite; degree of serration vary- 

 ing directly with body size. Genital double-somite (Fig. ID) 

 symmetrical, 1 .6 times longer than wide, expanded anteriorly. Sin- 

 gle copulatory pore opening mid-ventrally at about two-fifths of 

 distance along double-somite. Paired gonopores located laterally, 

 each covered by operculum armed with short spinous process, 1 



©The Natural History Museum, 1996 



