An extraordinary shift in life habit within a genus of cyclopid copepods in Lake Tanganyika

Abstract

We here describe a new species of cyclopid copepod, Eucyclops bathanalicola sp. nov., parasitic on a gastropod endemic to Lake Tanganyika, Bathanalia straeleni (Cerithioidea, Paludomidae). E. bathanalicola is distinguished by the possession of praecoxal claws on the maxillules, by the modified maxillae which lack any trace of an endopod on the powerful distal claw, and by the reduction of the maxillipeds to minute unarmed lobes. In the character states exhibited by the female body, antennules and swimming legs 1-5, the new species closely resembles a typical free living Eucyclops. The impact of the adoption of parasitism as a life habit is expressed primarily in the modification of the postmandibular mouthparts. As a member of the Cyclopidae, this species represents a unique foray into a parasitic lifestyle from an otherwise free-living group of copepods inhabiting Lake Tanganyika. This is the first record of a parasitic copepod on a mollusc host within this ancient lake and only the second family of freshwater gastropods reported to host copepods. © 2006 The Linnean Society of London.