The Cladocera of Sri Lanka (Ceylon), with remarks on some species

Abstract

The freshwater Cladocera of Sri Lanka has been revised based on the study of over 700 zooplankton samples collected from all habitat types during 1965-1980 . The cladoceran fauna is represented by six families ; members of the families Polyphemidae, Leptodoridae and Holopedidae are absent . The common temperate genus Daphnia is rare .Sixty-two species have been recorded from Sri Lanka . Of these, five are new records . Remarks on a few species are given with illustrations . The distribution of Cladocera in different types of habitats is discussed . The greatest species diversity was found in ponds . The Sri Lankan fauna is numerically and in species diversity typical of tropical cladoceran fauna . It resembles the southern Indian fauna very closely except for the absence in Sri Lanka of the genera Acroperus and Camptocercus .

Some remarks on long-term and seasonal changes in the zooplankton of Parakrama Samudra

“…Among the interesting findings is Diaphanosoma modigliani in 1980 (Table I). This species, typically limnetic, described from lake Toba, Indonesia (Richard 1893), was only recently recorded in Sri Lanka (Rajapaksa & Fernando 1982). Figure 2 shows the seasonal changes in numbers of total zooplankton and Rotifera in Parakrama Samudra for [1978][1979][1980].…”

Community structure of zooplankton and trophic status of some inland reservoirs in the low country intermediate zone of Sri Lanka

“…Taxonomy of Sri Lankan zooplankton has been studied by Changalath et al (1974), Fernando (1980aFernando ( , 1980b, Rajapakse and Fernando (1982) and Fernando and Weerawardhena (2002). Several studies on the zooplankton of Parakrama Samudra, an ancient major irrigation reservoir in the dry zone of Sri Lanka have received the attention of many researchers (Duncan 1983(Duncan , 1984Gulati 1983, Fernando andRajapakse 1983).…”

A checklist of the Cladocera of Israel and Eastern Sinai

“…A few, however, are circumtropical or African elements, namely, Alona tion. The relatively low number of Cladocera species found in this survey is in keeping with the fact that Israel is on the border between temperate and subtropical climates; the number of species found in temperate regions is usually between 80 and 100, while in tropical regions, 50-60 species of Cladocera is more usual (Rajapaksa & Fernando, 1982).…”