A new subspecies of Nitokra affinis Gurney, 1927 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) from the Caribbean coast of Colombia

Abstract. Plankton samples from Laguna Navio Quebrado, La Guajira, northern Colombia, yielded male and female specimens of an harpacticoid copepod that was first identified as the widely distributed species Nitokra affinis Gurney, 1927 for which at least four subspecies have been described from different geographic areas. A more detailed examination of the Colombian specimens revealed that it differs from the other morphs so far considered as subspecies. The Colombian specimens differ from the other four known subspecies in the following aspects: (1) rostrum with long projection, (2) relatively long exopod of P1, almost as long as first endopodal segment, (3) endopodal and exopodal rami of P2 equally long, (4) a reduced number of endopodal setal elements of the male P5. It also differs from N. a. californica Lang in details of the ornamentation of the urosomites. Descriptions and illustrations of this new subspecies, the first one described from the Neotropical region, are presented together with a key to the five known subspecies of Nitokra affinis. As in many other cases of presumedly widespread species of harpacticoids, it is possible that N. affinis represents a species complex with more restricted distributional patterns, a notion that certainly deserves further study.