Two species of branchiopods, one species of cladoceran, two species of ostracods, one species of isopod and one species of amphipod from a small collection of freshwater Crustacea are recorded from the Maltese Islands.peer-reviewe

Baldacchino, Alfred E.

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The Central fv1editerranean naturalist, Vol. 1 (2) - 1983 A PRELIMINILARY LIST OF FRESHWATER CRUSTACEANS FROM THE MALTESE I SLAN OS Alfred E. BALDACCHINO "l<estrel 1f in t1eli ta House, tiotary Zarb Street, Attard, HAL TA ABSTRACT Two species of branchiopods, one species of cladoceran, two species of ostracods, one species of isopod and one species of amphipod from a small collection of freshwater Crustacea are recorded from the Maltese Islands. INTRODUCTIon Previous records of freshwater crustaceans from the Maltese Islands were those of MEDLYCOTT (in SEDDALL, 1870) and of GULlA (1873). MEDLYCOTT recorded Branchipus s~agnalis (Cuv.) as rare in tanks and freshwater, and Cypris pubera O.F. MOller in stagnant pooLs on Manoel IsLand o GULlA Lists Limnodia meli~ensis sp. nov., Daphnia pulex MOLLer and Cyclops vulgaris Edw. GULlA aLso states that besides these, other species of Daphnia, three species of Cypris and one species of Cypridina aLso occur. Limnodia meli~ensis GuLia is a nomen nudum since GULlA gives no des-cription of this species. The MaLtese freshwater Crustacea have received LittLe attention since GULlA's paper. ZAMMIT-LUCIA (1971) in a study of the macrofauna of Chadwick's reservoir between December 1969 and May 1970 recorded the genera Cypris, Cyclops and Daphnia as weLL as Asellus aqua~icus. This author was more concerned with the ecoLogy of the reservoir and did not attempt to identify the Crustacea to species LeveL. The present work deaLs with a smaLL coLLection of freshwater crustacea coLLected from stagnant pooLs from MaLta and Gozo in 1912. It is inter-esting to note that the rainfaLL from September to April and from Septem-ber to November, when the coLLection was made was 69.1 cm and 8.1 cm res-pectiveLy. The specimens were coLLected using a fine net with specimen tube attached. SPECIES LIST SubcLass: Branchiopoda Order: Anostraca; FamiLy: Branchipodidae; SubfamiLy: Branchipodinae Branchipus stagnalis L. Four specimens from Wied tal L-Isperanza (Mosta), 30/IV/72 from a stagnant pooL of 1 m diameter and 0.5 m depth. 49 Order: Cladocera; Family: Daphnidae Simoceph3.lus vetulus <O.F. ~~Oller) CoLlected from a Large pooL at Rabat under the Mtarfa bridge where it was very common. Specimens kept alive in a freshwater aquarium reproduced successfully. Order: Conchostraca; FamiLy: Cyzicidae Eocyzicus (7) orientalis Daday Three specimens from the same pool as Branchipus stagnalis. \~ied ta L-Isperanza (Mosta), 30/IVI72. Subclass: Ostracoda Order: Podocopa; FamiLy: Cypridae; SubfamiLy: Cyprinae Herpetocypris reptans (Baird 1835) - ColLected from Gozo, 24/IV/72. Herpetocypri's intermedius (Kau fmann 1900) 24/ I V 172. Subclass: ~alacostraca CoLlected from Gozo, Superorder: Peracarida; Order: Isopoda; Suborder: AselLota; Family: AseL L i dae Asellus (Proasellus) coxalia DoLLfus CoLLected from Gozo, 24/IV/72. '%, Superorder: Peracarida; Order: Amphipoda; Family: Gammaridae Gammarus pungens Milne-Edwards CoLlected from Rabat under the Mtarfa bridge and also from Banrija, both in November 1972. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS '') The author is grateful to Mr. G.M. BenneL, Or. G.A. BoxhalL and Or. ~'Lincoln of the British Museum (Natural History) for identifying the -;specimens of freshwater crustacea. Thanks are aLso due to ~r. P.J. 4 Schembri for help in the preparation of this paper. REFERENCES GULlA, G. (1873). Fauna Maltese - Indice dei Crostacei. Il Barth, 1(15,16): 314-315, ilalta. ~1EnLYCOTT, I'!. (1870). Appendix X: t~otes on the Geology, Botany and tlat-ural History of t1alta, in SEDDALL, H. Malta: Past and Present, being a History of Malta from the days of the Phoenicians to the present time, Chapman & Hall, London, 355 pp. ZAHI-1IT -LUCIA, 11. (1971). A Study of the Macrofauna of Chadwick Lakes. M.Sc. thesis, The Royal University of Ha1ta; 84 pp. (Author's Note: This paper was prepared in 1972) received July 1977 50 

A preliminary list of freshwater Crustaceans from the Maltese Islands

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A preliminary list of freshwater Crustaceans from the Maltese Islands

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