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A new species of Nitocra Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae, Ameirinae) from South Africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976

Abstract. A new species of the genus Nitocra Boeck, 1865, Nitocra taylori sp. n. is described from the St Lucia Estuary, Africa’s largest estuarine lake. It is also suggested that Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976 and Nitocra reducta fluviatilisGalhano, 1968 are granted full species rank as Nitocr...

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Autores principales: Gómez, Samuel, Carrasco, Nicola K., Morales-Serna, Francisco Neptalí
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Pensoft Publishers 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3520102/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23275743
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.244.2633
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author Gómez, Samuel
Carrasco, Nicola K.
Morales-Serna, Francisco Neptalí
author_facet Gómez, Samuel
Carrasco, Nicola K.
Morales-Serna, Francisco Neptalí
author_sort Gómez, Samuel
collection PubMed
description Abstract. A new species of the genus Nitocra Boeck, 1865, Nitocra taylori sp. n. is described from the St Lucia Estuary, Africa’s largest estuarine lake. It is also suggested that Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976 and Nitocra reducta fluviatilisGalhano, 1968 are granted full species rank as Nitocra husmanni stat. n. Kunz, 1976 and Nitocra fluviatilis stat. n. Galhano, 1968. Nitocra taylori sp. n. appears to be closely related to Nitocra husmanni. Unfortunately, the original description of the micro-characters of the species lacks the detail needed to make reliable comparisons between species of the genus Nitocra. The main differences observed are the number of spinules along the posterior margin of the anal operculum, length ratio of the exopod and endopod of the first swimming leg, shape of the outer spine on the male third endopodal segment of the third swimming leg, number of segments of the male antennule, relative length of the setae on the male baseoendopod of the fifth leg, shape of the male exopod of the fifth leg, relative length of the two setae of the male sixth leg, and shape of the female baseoendopod of the fifth leg. The current distribution of Nitocra taylori sp. n. is limited to the lake part of the estuary, an area which is most severely affected by the current freshwater deprivation crisis. During closed mouth conditions, these regions (South/North Lake and False Bay) are characterized by low water levels, high salinities and high turbidity levels. This suggests that Nitocra taylori sp. n. may favor these environmental conditions and the significant correlations found between the abundance of Nitocra taylori sp. n. and salinity and turbidity confirm this to a degree. Nitocra taylori sp. n. individuals are also able to withstand a wide range of fluctuations. They were recorded at turbidities ranging from 2 to 102 NTU, temperatures from 20.9 to 34.8 ºC and salinity levels ranging from 9.81 to 53.7 psu. However, in the current state of the system, salinity and temperature levels in the northern regions frequently exceed this value. Continued freshwater deprivation may, therefore, further limit the distribution range of this species.
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spelling pubmed-35201022012-12-28 A new species of Nitocra Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae, Ameirinae) from South Africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976 Gómez, Samuel Carrasco, Nicola K. Morales-Serna, Francisco Neptalí Zookeys Article Abstract. A new species of the genus Nitocra Boeck, 1865, Nitocra taylori sp. n. is described from the St Lucia Estuary, Africa’s largest estuarine lake. It is also suggested that Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976 and Nitocra reducta fluviatilisGalhano, 1968 are granted full species rank as Nitocra husmanni stat. n. Kunz, 1976 and Nitocra fluviatilis stat. n. Galhano, 1968. Nitocra taylori sp. n. appears to be closely related to Nitocra husmanni. Unfortunately, the original description of the micro-characters of the species lacks the detail needed to make reliable comparisons between species of the genus Nitocra. The main differences observed are the number of spinules along the posterior margin of the anal operculum, length ratio of the exopod and endopod of the first swimming leg, shape of the outer spine on the male third endopodal segment of the third swimming leg, number of segments of the male antennule, relative length of the setae on the male baseoendopod of the fifth leg, shape of the male exopod of the fifth leg, relative length of the two setae of the male sixth leg, and shape of the female baseoendopod of the fifth leg. The current distribution of Nitocra taylori sp. n. is limited to the lake part of the estuary, an area which is most severely affected by the current freshwater deprivation crisis. During closed mouth conditions, these regions (South/North Lake and False Bay) are characterized by low water levels, high salinities and high turbidity levels. This suggests that Nitocra taylori sp. n. may favor these environmental conditions and the significant correlations found between the abundance of Nitocra taylori sp. n. and salinity and turbidity confirm this to a degree. Nitocra taylori sp. n. individuals are also able to withstand a wide range of fluctuations. They were recorded at turbidities ranging from 2 to 102 NTU, temperatures from 20.9 to 34.8 ºC and salinity levels ranging from 9.81 to 53.7 psu. However, in the current state of the system, salinity and temperature levels in the northern regions frequently exceed this value. Continued freshwater deprivation may, therefore, further limit the distribution range of this species. Pensoft Publishers 2012-11-20 /pmc/articles/PMC3520102/ /pubmed/23275743 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.244.2633 Text en Samuel Gómez, Nicola K. Carrasco, Francisco Neptalí Morales-Serna http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 (CC-BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Gómez, Samuel
Carrasco, Nicola K.
Morales-Serna, Francisco Neptalí
A new species of Nitocra Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae, Ameirinae) from South Africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976
title A new species of Nitocra Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae, Ameirinae) from South Africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976
title_full A new species of Nitocra Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae, Ameirinae) from South Africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976
title_fullStr A new species of Nitocra Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae, Ameirinae) from South Africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976
title_full_unstemmed A new species of Nitocra Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae, Ameirinae) from South Africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976
title_short A new species of Nitocra Boeck, 1865 (Harpacticoida, Ameiridae, Ameirinae) from South Africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of Nitocra sewelli husmanni Kunz, 1976
title_sort new species of nitocra boeck, 1865 (harpacticoida, ameiridae, ameirinae) from south africa, with notes on its ecology and remarks on the status of nitocra sewelli husmanni kunz, 1976
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3520102/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23275743
http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.244.2633
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