Abstract
Indobathynella socrates n. sp. is described from Karaiguda Cave in the Visakhapatnam District of Andhra Pradesh state, south-eastern India. This is the first cavernicolous species of Indobathynella, which is incidentally the most reduced genus in the family Bathynellidae as a whole. The type species of this genus, Indobathynella prehensilis, is from a farm bore. The new species fulfils all the principal generic criteria of Indobathynella, but is distinctly different from I. prehensilis in several essential features: absence of subapical seta on antennary exopod; 4 claws on distal maxillulary endite; 6 teeth on mandibular gnathobase, and uropodal exopod without ventro-medial seta. These and all other salient differences between the two species are tabulated. Besides providing brief notes on conservation and biogeography of the new species, a key to all the known Indian taxa of Bathynellidae is given for the first time.
References
Government of Andhra Pradesh, Department: INC01-Industries & Commerce, Section: Mines.II-G.O.MS.No. 43, dated on 06-04-2016. Available from https://goir.ap.gov.in/ (accessed 27 November 2018)
Messouli, M., Holsinger, J.R. & Ranga Reddy, Y. (2007) Kotumsaridae, a new family of subterranean amphipod crustaceans from India, with description of Kotumsaria bastarensis, new genus, new species. Zootaxa, 1589, 33–46.
https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.178524
Ranga Reddy, Y. & Schminke, H.K. (2005) A new bathynellid from India with unusual mouthparts (Bathynellacea: Bathynellidae). Journal of Crustacean Biology, 25 (1), 25–30.
https://doi.org/10.1651/C-2501
Ranga Reddy, Y. (2014) On the little-known hyporheic biodiversity of India, with annotated checklist of copepods and bathynellaceans (Crustacea) and a note on the disastrous implications of indiscriminate sand mining. Journal of Threatened Taxa, 6, 5315–5326.
https://doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3734.5315-26
Ranga Reddy, Y. & Totakura, V.R. (2012) Indobathynella prehensilis gen. et sp. nov., an aberrant species of Bathynellacea (Eumalacostraca) from India. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 32 (2), 281–293.
https://doi.org/10.1163/193724011X615587
Ranga Reddy, Y., Shaik, S & Totakura, V.R. (2015) Camachobathynella meghalayaensis n. g., n. sp. The first palearctic element of Bathynellacea (Eumalacostraca, Bathynellidae) from northeastern India. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 35 (5), 700–713.
https://doi.org/10.1163/1937240X-00002355
Schminke, H.K. (1974) Mesozoic intercontinental relationship as evidenced by bathynellid Crustacea (Syncarida: Malacostraca). Systematic Zoology, 23, 157–164.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2412129
Schminke, H.K. (1981) Perspectives in the study of the zoogeography of interstitial Crustacea: Bathynellacea (Syncarida) and Parastenocarididae (Copepoda). International Journal of Speleology, 11, 83–89.
https://doi.org/10.5038/1827-806X.11.1.9
Schram, F.R. (1977) Paleozoogeography of the late Paleozoic and Triassic Malacostraca. Systematic Zoology, 26, 367–379.
https://doi.org/10.2307/2412793
Shaik, S. (2017) Biodiversity of Indian caves and hyporheic habitats with special reference to phylogenetic systematics and biogeography of Copepoda, Bathynellacea and Isopoda (crustacea), Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjunanagar, 156 pp.
Shaik, S. & Ranga Reddy, Y. (2018) On the genus Habrobathynella Schminke, 1973 (Crustacea, Malacostraca, Bathynellacea), with description of three new species from India. Zootaxa, 4508 (3), 1–72.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4492.1.1
Sidorov, D.A., Ranga Reddy, Y. & Shaik, S (2018) Groundwater amphipods (Crustacea, Malacostraca) of India, with description of three new cavernicolous species. Zootaxa, 4508 (3), 403–426.
https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4508.3.4
Wilson, G.D.F. & Ranga Reddy, Y. (2011) Andhracoides shabuddin gen. n. sp. nov., a new phreatoicidean isopod (Crustacea, Hypsimetopidae) in hypogean aquatic habitats in Andhra Pradesh, India. Zootaxa, 2869, 37–53.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.207632
Wilson, G.D.F., Shaik, S. & Ranga Reddy, Y. (2015) A new species of Andhracoides Wilson and Ranga Reddy, 2011 (Isopoda, Hypsimetopidae) from Belum Cave, Andhra Pradesh, India, with a phylogenetic review of the family. Journal of Crustacean Biology, 35 (2), 216–240.
https://doi.org/10.1163/1937240X-00002333