A new species of Halicyclops (Copepoda, Cyclopoida, Cyclopidae) from a lagoon system of the Caribbean coast of Colombia

By

Suarez-Morales, Eduardo
Fuentes-Reinés, Juan M.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2014

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

459

Pages

35-47

Subjects

brackish waters , Crustaceans , halicyclopines , lagoon systems biota , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.459.7972

 

Abstract

Plankton samples obtained from the lagoon system Laguna Navío Quebrado, in northern Colombia, yielded male and female specimens of an undescribed cyclopoid copepod of the genus Halicyclops. The new species belongs to the highly diverse and widely distributed thermophilus-complex. It closely resembles H. clarkei Herbst, 1982 from Louisiana and H. bowmani Rocha & Iliffe, 1993 from Bermuda. These species share the same armature of P1-P4EXP3, with a 3443 spine formula and the terminal antennary segment with 5 setae. However, H. gaviriai sp. n. can be separated from both H. clarkei and H. bowmani by the morphology of the anal pseudoperculum, the proportions of the fourth antennulary segment, the length of the inner basipodal spine of P1, the P1EXP/inner basipodal spine inner length ratio and the length/width ratio of the caudal rami. This is the third species of Halicyclops recorded from Colombia and the first one described from this country. With the addition of H. gaviriai sp. n., the number of species of Halicyclops known from the Neotropics increases to 19. The regional diversity of the genus is probably underestimated.