We investigated the phylogeography of the main lineages in the tadpole shrimp Triops mauritanicus Ghigi in the south-western Iberian Peninsula, using mitochondrial 12S and 16S rDNA sequences. Our results indicate that a fourth, hitherto unknown main phylogenetic lineage occurs in Iberia, so that in total, the species is divided into six distinct clades, comprising T. m. mauritanicus, T. m. simplex Ghigi, and four as yet unnamed lineages that appear to be endemic to Iberia. Percentages of sequence divergence among the main clades in T. mauritanicus reach the range reported for recognized species in other notostracan lineages. A thorough morphological investigation also revealed that the differentiation among these lineages is higher than previously thought, and that populations of three of the main clades within T. mauritanicus can be reliably separated from each other and from the remaining lineages based on the morphology of adult males. The remaining clades also show a significant level of morphological Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

We investigated the phylogenetic relationships among the three presently recognized subspecies of the tadpole shrimp, Triops cancriformis, using mitochondrial 16S and 12S rDNA sequences. Our results indicate that the taxon is divided into two distinct lineages. One lineage is formed of T. c. cancriformis populations and samples from northern Spain that had been classified as T. c. simplex in the most recent literature. The second lineage comprises all\ud populations of T. c. mauritanicus and northern African populations of T. c. simplex . These two main lineages separated 2.3 to 8.9 million years ago, based on the range of inferred molecular clocks recognized for crustacean mtDNA sequence divergence. Percentages of divergence are in the range reported for recognized species in other notostracan lineages and we therefore propose to recognize them as two species, Triops cancriformis\ud and Triops mauritanicus . The latter would comprise two subspecies in northern Africa, one consisting of the Moroccan populations of the former T. c. mauritanicus , the other comprising the African populations of\ud the former T. c. simplex . It also includes three as-yet unnamed lineages. A comparison of morphological characters with the molecular data revealed that the former T. c. simplex cannot be reliably separated from T. c. cancriformis\ud , using morphological characters that have hitherto been used to distinguish among subspecies of T. cancriformis\ud . Our investigation is the first to demonstrate the presence of T. c. cancriformis in Africa (Tunisia). The genetic haplotypes of these populations are identical with haplotypes also occurring in Central and Western Europe,\ud as well as in Sicily. Therefore, we hypothesize that the African populations of T. c. cancriformis represent a result of repeated long-distance dispersal across the Mediterranean Sea

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The relative influences of local and regional factors on the distribution of passive dispersers may be altered by habitat degradation, partly via differential effects on species depending on their niche breadths. To study this, we compared the effects of local (pond, water and vegetation characteristics) and regional (Moran’s eigenvector maps) factors on passively dispersing large branchiopod crustaceans from two areas of the Iberian Peninsula differing in habitat condition (i.e. well preserved vs impacted). Species were arranged from generalists to specialists based on niche breadth. We hypothesised that (1) habitat degradation would favour functional homogenisation, resulting in higher occurrences of generalist species in the impacted area; because generalist species are likely to be less dependent on local factors, we also hypothesised that (2) regional factors would be more important in the impacted area. As predicted, the most generalist species had higher occurrences in the impacted area, resulting in functional homogenisation. Ultimately, this process affected metacommunity dynamics that were more influenced by regional than local factors because generalist species were widely distributed regardless of habitat degradation.

The diet of Sepia o⁄cinalis was studied by examining the stomach contents of 522 specimens caught o¡ the coast of the Algarve, Portugal. A total of 49 di¡erent prey items, belonging to six taxa (Polychaeta, Cephalopoda, Teleostei, Bivalvia, Crustacea and Gastropoda) was found, indicating opportunistic feeding behaviour. The diet was examined in relation to season, sex and size. The diet of males and females were similar. For small S. o⁄cinalis, crustaceans were more important in weight, whereas for larger specimens, ¢sh were dominant. Seasonal di¡erences in the diet were apparent but were shown to be possibly in£uenced by the cuttle¢sh size.