A new species of Pseudomoraria from an alpine spring of Picos de Europa, North of Spain

Abstract

Pseudomoraria triglavensis was described by Brancelj (1994) from specimens collected in a high-alpine reservoir at the Triglav National Park (NW Slovenia) at an altitude of 1690 m a.s.l. During an expedition in the Picos de Europa National Park (N Spain) in 2018, a new species of Pseudomoraria was collected in an epikarst spring (Fuente Escondido), below the ice cave of Altaiz at an altitude of 2112 m a.s.l. The new species can be easily distinguished from Pseudomoraria triglavensis by the presence of an inner seta on the edopodite 1 of female and male pereopod 1; absence of the outer spine on the exopodite 2 of the third and fourth female pereopods; four, instead of five setae on the second endopodite of the fourth female pereopod; and the female furca lacks the ventral distal patch of spinules characteristic of P. triglavensis. In the male, the new species differs from its congeners by the position and shape of the apophysis of the second edopodite of the pereopod 3, which is positioned in the outer, instead of the inner margin, and is bent around the distal inner spine; the second exopodite of the pereopod 4 has spines/setae, lacking the innermost seta which is present in P. triglavensis. The female armature of the pereopod 5 is highly variable, with 4-6 setae/spines on the exopod and 4-6 setae on the baso-endopod. According to Brancelj (1994), P. triglavensis could not be included in any genus known at the time and concluded, based on the armature of the pereopod 5 of both sexes, that it would be most closely related to Moraria. We disagree with this author and propose a close relationship of this genus with the genus Hypocamptus Chappuis, 1929 sharing similar male pereopod segmentation and armature. In addition, the species belonging to both genera are a characteristic for the fauna of the alpine water bodies. It is not yet clear the phylogenetic relationship between the two genera, but evidences suggest that Pseudomoraria may be a junior synonym of Hypocamptus.