Cladistic Analysis of 37 Mediterranean Bogidiellidae (Amphipoda), Including Bogidiella arista, New Species, From Turkey

A new subterranean amphipod species, Bogidiella (Medigidiella) arista, found in the mesopsam mic ground waters of southern Anatolia, Turkey, is described, together with Bogidiella (Bogidiella) calicali Karaman, the latter being recorded for the first time in the eastern Mediterranean. A cladistic analysis of 37 Mediterranean species of the family Bogidiellidae is performed, using 4 species from the Canary Islands as an outgroup. Alternatively, 2 cladistic software packages, PAUP 3.1.1 and HENNIG86, are employed to calculate consensus trees of minimal length. The resulting trees show more or less identical robust clades, characterizing a central, a central-eastern, and an eastern Mediterranean group. Apart from this pattern of major geographical clusters, all species of the subgenus Medigidiella appear as a robust, monophyletic clade as well. This initial attempt to analyze the phylogeny of Mediterranean bogidiellids forms a useful basis for further, extended studies, using either different outgroup taxa or additional morphological data

Abundance, diversity and succession of aquatic Coleoptera and Heteroptera in a cluster of artificial ponds in the North German Lowlands

AbstractOur study describes and evaluates environmental influences on assemblages of aquatic Coleoptera and Heteroptera in artificial ponds situated near Lake Steinhude in Lower Saxony (Germany). We determined temporal dynamics and colonization patterns for 14 ponds of different age. In total, we recorded 4941 individuals that represented 87 species of aquatic beetles and bugs. Between 30 and 40 species were found in most of the ponds. Heteropteran species of the families Corixidae and Notonectidae acted as pioneer species in new ponds, while aquatic coleopterans predominated in older ponds. The results of Canonical Correspondence Analyses (CCA) showed that among the key factors affecting community structure were land use, vegetation cover, water chemistry and the age of the ponds. We found that the distribution of adjacent ponds on areas with different land use has a positive influence on the diversity and abundance of the aquatic insect fauna

Serotonin-immunoreactive neurons in the ventral nerve cord of Remipedia (Crustacea): support for a sister group relationship of Remipedia and Hexapoda?

BACKGROUND: Remipedia were initially seen as a primitive taxon within Pancrustacea based on characters considered ancestral, such as the homonomously segmented trunk. Meanwhile, several morphological and molecular studies proposed a more derived position of Remipedia within Pancrustacea, including a sister group relationship to Hexapoda. Because of these conflicting hypotheses, fresh data are crucial to contribute new insights into euarthropod phylogeny. The architecture of individually identifiable serotonin-immunoreactive neurons has successfully been used for phylogenetic considerations in Euarthropoda. Here, we identified neurons in three species of Remipedia with an antiserum against serotonin and compared our findings to reconstructed ground patterns in other euarthropod taxa. Additionally, we traced neurite connectivity and neuropil outlines using antisera against acetylated α-tubulin and synapsin. RESULTS: The ventral nerve cord of Remipedia displays a typical rope-ladder-like arrangement of separate metameric ganglia linked by paired longitudinally projecting connectives. The peripheral projections comprise an intersegmental nerve, consisting of two branches that fuse shortly after exiting the connectives, and the segmental anterior and posterior nerve. The distribution and morphology of serotonin-immunoreactive interneurons in the trunk segments is highly conserved within the remipede species we analyzed, which allows for the reconstruction of a ground pattern: two posterior and one anterior pair of serotonin-immunoreactive neurons that possess a single contralateral projection. Additionally, three pairs of immunoreactive neurons are found in the medial part of each hemiganglion. In one species (Cryptocorynetes haptodiscus), the anterior pair of immunoreactive neurons is missing. CONCLUSIONS: The anatomy of the remipede ventral nerve cord with its separate metameric ganglia mirrors the external morphology of the animal’s trunk. The rope-ladder-like structure and principal architecture of the segmental ganglia in Remipedia corresponds closely to that of other Euarthropoda. A comparison of the serotonin-immunoreactive cell arrangement of Remipedia to reconstructed ground patterns of major euarthropod taxa supports a homology of the anterior and posterior neurons in Pancrustacea. These neurons in Remipedia possess unbranched projections across the midline, pointing towards similarities to the hexapod pattern. Our findings are in line with a growing number of phylogenetic investigations proposing Remipedia to be a rather derived crustacean lineage that perhaps has close affinities to Hexapoda

Global Biodiversity and Phylogenetic Evaluation of Remipedia (Crustacea)

Remipedia is one of the most recently discovered classes of crustaceans, first described in 1981 from anchialine caves in the Bahamas Archipelago. The class is divided into the order Enantiopoda, represented by two fossil species, and Nectiopoda, which contains all known extant remipedes. Since their discovery, the number of nectiopodan species has increased to 24, half of which were described during the last decade. Nectiopoda exhibit a disjunct global distribution pattern, with the highest abundance and diversity in the Caribbean region, and isolated species in the Canary Islands and in Western Australia. Our review of Remipedia provides an overview of their ecological characteristics, including a detailed list of all anchialine marine caves, from which species have been recorded. We discuss alternative hypotheses of the phylogenetic position of Remipedia within Arthropoda, and present first results of an ongoing molecular-phylogenetic analysis that do not support the monophyly of several nectiopodan taxa. We believe that a taxonomic revision of Remipedia is absolutely essential, and that a comprehensive revision should include a reappraisal of the fossil record

Bogidiella Venetris,a new species of subterranean Amphipoda (Bogidiellidae) from Australia, with remarks on the systematics and biogeography

A new species of subterranean amphipod, Bogidiella veneris, from Venus Bay, South Australia is described. The species was found in a groundwater observation well drilled in an aeolianite limestone formation only 500 m from the seashore. The discovery of the new bogidiellid amphipod is one of the outcomes of a three year stygofauna survey in South Australia. Bogidiella veneris is the fourth species of Bogidiellidae from the Australian region.Remko Leijs, Armin Bloechl, and Stefan Koeneman

Kaloketos pilosus, a new genus and species of Remipedia (Crustacea) from the Turks and Caicos Islands

We describe a new genus and species of remipede crustacean from an anchialine cave on the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean region. Kaloketos pilosus is a medium-sized species of robust build that occurs in sympatry with other remipedes, and is recognized as a new genus of the family Speleonectidae. Kaloketos is distinguished from other genera of Remipedia by several unique characters that include dense fields of short, feathered setae on most maxillary and maxillipedal segments, and distinctly expanded rami of the larger trunk limbs

2010 ) Cryptocorynetes elmorei, a new species of Remipedia Crustacea) from an anchialine cave on

Abstract We describe a new species of the crustacean class Remipedia based on three specimens collected from an anchialine cave on Eleuthera, an island of the Bahamian archipelago. Cryptocorynetes elmorei n. sp. is distinguished from the other two currently known species of the genus particularly by its extremely long maxillipeds bearing a relatively small terminal claw, the absence of discoid organs on the 4th segment of the maxilla, and the shape of its sternal bars. In addition, Cryptocorynetes elmorei is equipped with spiniform processes on the bases of the trunk limbs, and discoid organs that have a different shape than those of Cryptocorynetes haptodiscus