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Issue: Vol. 1589 No. 1: 19 Sep. 2007
Type: Article
Published: 2007-09-19
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1589.1.3
Page range: 33–46
Abstract views: 66
PDF downloaded: 1

Kotumsaridae, a new family of subterranean amphipod crustaceans from India, with description of Kotumsaria bastarensis, new genus, new species

UCAM, Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Département de Biologie, LHEA, BP2390 Marrakesh, Morocco
Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0266, USA
Department of Zoology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjunanagar 522510, India
stygobiotic amphipods Kotumsaridae India Kotumsar cave subterranean groundwater

Abstract

Kotumsaridae, a new family of amphipod crustaceans is described from Kotumsar Cave in the state of Chhattisgarh, India. The family is based on Kotumsaria bastarensis, new genus and species, which is the only known member of the new family recorded to date. Although the new family appears to share some morphological characters with several other taxa from the southern hemisphere considered members of the superfamily Crangonyctoidea, including the New Zealand endemic genus Paracrangonyx, both its taxonomic and phylogenetic affinities remain unclear. Specimens of the new taxon, measuring just over 2 mm in length, were collected from the sediments of a pool in Kotumsar Cave but are believed to have migrated from deeper interstices. Kotumsaria bastarensis is only the third subterranean amphipod recorded to date from the Indian subcontinent.

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