A new genus and species of the family diosaccidae (Copepoda: Harpacticoida) from the groundwaters of India

Abstract

The recent renewed interest in the Indian stygofauna has led to the discovery of another interesting copepod representative, from the almost exclusively marine family Diosaccidae Sars, 1906. Neomiscegenus n. gen. and Neomiscegenus indicus n. sp., from the subterranean freshwaters of the Krishna River at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, are described. The new genus belongs to that evolutionary line of Diosaccidae that encompasses the genera Amphiascoides Nicholls, 1941; Paramphiascella Lang, 1948; Paramphiascoides Wells, 1967; and Miscegenus Wells, Hicks, and Coull, 1982. The genus Miscegenus has the highest number of synapomorphies with Neomiscegenus, including the shape of the caudal rami and the armature formula of the swimming legs. A peculiar shape of the genital field in the female and the armature of the antennal exopod in both sexes are the most important autapomorphies of the new genus, while the fine structure of the sexually dimorphic second leg in the male is probably plesiomorphic. The phylogenetic position of the new genus is briefly discussed.