Inland swamps in South East Asia harbour hidden cladoceran diversities: species richness and the description of new paludal Chydoridae (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Cladocera) from Southern Thailand

Tropical Amphi-Pacific disjunctions in the Cladocera (Crustacea: Branchiopoda)

“…Drawings were made by means of a drawing tube or camera lucida. Kotov et al (2013); Van Damme et al (2013b); Sinev and Korovchinsky (2013). Leydigiopsis curvirostris: Sharma and Sharma (2007).…”

“…A more detailed look at the morphology of Leydigiopsis and in particular at its limb characters, has revealed that it is actually closer to the genera Euryalona Sars, 1901 andTretocephala Frey, 1965, which might have separated relatively early from the main trend in the Aloninae (Sinev, 2004b;Van Damme et al, 2013b) and is related closest of all to a monotypic sister genus in Australia, Miralona Sinev, 2004(Sinev, 2004a. In Southern Thailand, Leydigiopsis appears to be one of the paludal species, very rare and restricted to swamps, which are relict habitats in SE Asia with an ancient history, harbouring an underestimated diversity among the Cladocera (Van Damme et al, 2013b).…”

“…As part of sampling campaigns in the South of Thailand in collaboration with Dr. S. Maiphae and P. Sa-ardrit (Prince of Songkla University, Thailand), KVD collected this Leydigiopsis in Natam swamp, providing the Thai specimens for this study. The latter is a diverse locality in Trang province, South Western Thailand, where also other new chydorids were found, belonging to the genera Notoalona Rajapaksa et Fernando, 1987and Karualona Dumont et Silva-Briano, 2000(Van Damme et al, 2013b. The Vietnamese specimens were collected by AYS in Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam (Sinev and Korovchinsky, 2013).…”

“…The only species with two headpores in the A. costata-group (Sinev, 2008) and therefore easily recognisable, A. setigera is distributed in Indonesia, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand (Sinev, 1999) (Sanoamuang, 1998;Maiphae et al, 2008;Van Damme et al, 2013b). This record needs revision.…”

“…In the Lençoís Maranhenses in Brazil (Van Damme and Dumont, 2010), species associated with Leydigiopsis in dystrophic temporary habitats are Streblocerus pygmaeus Sars, 1901, Macrothrix sioli Smirnov, 1982, Alona ossiani Sinev, 1998, Anthalona verrucosa (Sars, 1901 Sinev et Dumont, 2011, C. hislopi, etc. ) (Van Damme et al, 2013b). Hence, it is not just a disjunct species, but a vicariant community.…”