Chirocephalus soulukliensis, an insular new species of fairy shrimp, is described from the Soulukli Wetland in Golestan National Park in northeastern Iran. The new species shares several characters with the loosely organized "Pristicephalus" group. It is readily separated from all congeners by the short, monolamellar form of the antennal appendage, which is un-armed, the distally expanded form ...

We examined the potential utility of museum specimens as a source for genetic analysis of fairy shrimp. Because of loss of their vernal pool habitat, some fairy shrimp (including Branchinectasandiegonensis and Branchinectalynchi) are listed as threatened or endangered in Southern California by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Management of those species requires extensive population...

We present a checklist of the large branchiopod crustaceans of Idaho, Oregon and Washington, USA. New distributional records are presented for most species, including the first records of Branchinecta constricta Rogers, 2006 and Lepidurus cryptus Rogers, 2001 from Idaho, the first record of B. oriena Belk & Rogers 2002 from Oregon, the first record of B. mackini Dexter, 1956 and Artemiafrancisc...

Branchinecta packardi is a widespread, fast-hatching species of fairy shrimp found in desert ephemeral pools on the Colorado plateau that relies on a dormant cyst stage to temporally bridge periods of pool desiccation. Determining the factors that control B. packardi cyst bank density in dry basins and population dynamics during periods of inundation may be a fundamental step towards predicting...

The effects of substrate geomorphic surface and physical vernal pool dimensions on plant species richness and composition, and large branchiopod occurrences were investigated for 814 vernal pools at Beale Air Force Base, Yuba County, California. Vernal pools mostly occurred on four geomorphic surfaces: the Mehrten, Laguna, Riverbank, and Modesto Formations. Plant species richness was positively...

Recent molecular analyses indicate that crustaceans and hexapods form a clade (Pancrustacea or Tetraconata), but relationships among its constituent lineages, including monophyly of crustaceans, are controversial. Our phylogenetic analysis of three protein-coding nuclear genes from 62 arthropods and lobopods (Onychophora and Tardigrada) demonstrates that Hexapoda is most closely related to the ...

Maternal effects--where an individual's phenotype is influenced by the phenotype or environment of its mother--are taxonomically and ecologically widespread. Yet, their role in the origin of novel, complex traits remains unclear. Here we investigate the role of maternal effects in influencing the induction of a novel resource-use phenotype. Spadefoot toad tadpoles, Spea multiplicata, often devi...

Branchinecta uruguayensis, a new species of fairy shrimp, is described from a single seasonally astatic aquatic habitat in coastal Uruguay. This is the first record of an anostracan from the nation of Uruguay. Male B. uruguayensis n. sp. are separated from other Branchinecta species by the form of the second antennae. Branchinecta uruguayensis n. sp. share the distal antennomere lobiform projec...

We present and describe the fairy shrimp Streptocephalus sahyadriensis sp. nov. from the Western Ghats of India. This species is most similar to S. simplex Gurney, 1906 and S. dichotomus Baird, 1860 sharing similar basic antennal appendage morphology. However, S. sahyadriensis sp. nov. differs in the form of the ornamentation on the peduncle and the arrangement and form of spines on the antenna...

A new species of Phallocryptus Biraben 1951 (Branchiopoda, Anostraca) from Mongolia is described. Phallocryptus tserensodnomi sp. nov. is close to P. spinosa (Milne-Edwards 1840), but both morphological and molecular analyses (Cytochrome Oxidase I, COI) indicate that they represent separate species. Most relevant differential features of the new species include: (1) frontal appendage provided w...