Life stages and morphological variations of Limnocythere inopinata (Crustacea, Ostracoda) from Lake Jiang-Co (northern Tibet): a bioculture experiment

By

Wang, Can
Wang, Hailei
Kuang, Xingxing
Guo, Ganlin

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1011

Pages

25--40

Subjects

Cytheroidea , growth pattern , morphological characteristics , Tibetan Plateau

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1011.56065

 

Abstract

Limnocythere inopinata (Baird, 1843) is a Holarctic species, abundant in a number of Recent and fossil ostracod assemblages, and has many important taxonomic and (paleo)ecological applications. However, the life cycle and morphological characteristics of the living L. inopinata are still unclear. A bioculture experiment was designed to study life stages and morphological variations from stage A-8 to adult in this species. The living animals were collected from Lake Jiang-Co, in the northern Tibetan Plateau. Results reveal that this species possesses a special growth pattern with the maximum size increase occurring at the transition from the instars A-5 to A-4. The growth pattern deviates from Brooks’ rule and one population from Lake Dali, eastern Mongolian Plateau. This suggests that the life history of L. inopinata may be influenced by environmental factors. Some morphological differences between Lake Jiang-Co and European populations of L. inopinata are also uncovered. Therefore, a detailed morphological description of this population is provided, but refrain from erecting a new species at the present stage because those differences appear to be inconsistent.