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Revision of the African species of the genus Mesocyclops Sars, 1914 (Copepoda: Cyclopidae)

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Abstract

A revision is made of the African Mesocyclops species, based on type material (when extant) and on collections from various parts in Africa.

Diagnostic characteristics are: presence or absence of spinule patterns on antennular segments, structure of the hyaline membrane of the 17th antennular segment, spine pattern on the basipodite of the antenna, armature of the maxillulary palp, presence or absence of a spine on the basipodite of P1, armature of the connecting lamella, coxopodite and basipodite of P4, armature of the apical spines of Enp3P4, armature of the last thoracic segment, genital segment and the other abdominal segments, armature of the furcal rami and structure of the receptaculum seminis.

First, the taxonomical status of M. leuckarti (Claus) is redefined; this species does not occur in Africa and its geographical range is restricted to Europe and the western part of Northern Asia. On the African continent, twelve other taxa are found. Four are described as new to science: M. kieferi sp.n., M. dussarti sp.n., M. spinosus sp.n. and M. aequatorialis similis subsp.n. The remainder are: M. major Sars, M. tenuisaccus (Sars), M. paludosus Lindberg, M. salinus Onabamiro, M. ogunnus Onabamiro, M. aspericornis (Daday), M. rarus Kiefer and M. aequatorialis aequatorialis (Kiefer).

Their geographical distribution is discussed. Eleven taxa are restricted to the African continent (including the Arabian Peninsula and the Canary Islands). One taxon is also found in the Oriental Region. Madagascan representatives are briefly mentioned.

The importance of breeding and cross-breeding experiments should be stressed in copepod taxonomy. Experiments were performed on African species and M. leuckarti to evaluate the morphological characters used in the present study, and intraspecific morphological variability was examined up to and including the third generation (Van de Velde, in press).

In future one should critically reconsider the so-called cosmopolitan species; they may indeed represent a complex of related taxa, each with a geographical range more restricted than that of the species-complex itself.

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  1. Instituut voor Dierkunde, Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000, Gent, Belgium

    Isabella Van de Velde

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  1. Isabella Van de Velde
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Abstracted from the author's Ph.D. thesis, State University of Ghent, 1982.

Abstracted from the author's Ph.D. thesis, State University of Ghent, 1982.

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Van de Velde, I. Revision of the African species of the genus Mesocyclops Sars, 1914 (Copepoda: Cyclopidae). Hydrobiologia 109, 3–66 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00006297

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