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Type: Article
Published: 2015-11-06
Page range: 516–528
Abstract views: 47
PDF downloaded: 1

A new species of Acroperus Baird, 1843 (Cladocera: Chydoridae) from Africa

A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Leninsky Prospect 33, Moscow 119071, Russia.
A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Leninsky Prospect 33, Moscow 119071, Russia.
Crustacea Cladocera morphology taxonomy new species Ethiopia Eastern Cape Africa

Abstract

A new species of Acroperus Baird, 1843 (Cladocera: Chydoridae) is described based on the material from Lake Tana, Ethiopia and two water bodies in Eastern Cape, Republic of South Africa. In Africa, Acroperus africanus sp. nov. had a chance to be confused by previous authors with Palearctic A. harpae (Baird, 1834) and A. angustatus Sars, 1863, but it could be easily distinguished from the latter by: (1) smaller seta on the proximal segment of antenna II endopod; (2) larger values of seta 3/seta 2 length ratio on the limb I, as well as some additional features. Diversity of the genus in Africa is underestimated yet, and further investigations of taxon distribution and ecology are necessary.