Troglocyclops janstocki, new genus, new species, a very primitive cyclopid (Copepoda:Cyclopoida) from an anchialine cave in Bahamas.

C. E. Rocha ¹& T. M. Iliffe²
Hydriobiologia, 292/293: 105-111

Troglocyclops janstocki is proposed to accomodate cyclopids from Hatchet Bay Cave, Eleuthera Island, Bahamas. The species is the most primitive member of the Halicyclopinae because of the presence of 15-segmented antennules, mandibular palp reduced to 3 setae, one of them quite long and plumose, a bisegmented maxillary endopodite, and 3 segments in the maxilliped endopodite. These copepods possess the first pediger still distinct, being partially enclosed dorsally and laterally by a carapace-like extension of the posterior margin of the dorsal cephalic shield. This latter character represents a plesiomorphic state shared with the primitive cyclopinids and, within the Cyclopidae, only with the Euryteinae. The new taxon is the only known species of Halicyclopinae having two apical spines on the terminal segment of the exopodite of legs 2 to 4, and the intercoxal sclerites of the legs 1 and 2 sexually dimorphic. The phylogenetic importance of each of these characters is discussed.

1. Departamento de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociencias, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Caixa Postal 20520, 01452-990, Sao Paulo, Brazil
e-mail: cefrocha@usp.b

2. Department of Marine Biology, Texas A & M University at Galveston, P.O. Box 1675, Galveston, TX 77553 USA; e-mail: iliffe@tamug.tamu.edu