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

Revision of the genus Neoscolecithrix (Copepoda, Calanoida) and description of N. caetanoi, sp. n., collected off Brazil

The genus Neoscolecithrix is redefined and its situation in the family is discussed. The division of the species of this genus into two groups, "kehleri" and "farrani", is proposed, based on marked differences in the type of the rostrum, in the mandible's gnathobase, in the maxilla 2 and in the legs, especially the fifth leg. Xanthocalanus watersae Grice (1972) is considered a species of Neoscolecithrix. The female and the male of N. caetanoi sp. n., collected off the Brazilian coast at 900 m depth, are described