Abstract
Australia is predicted to have a high number of currently undescribed ostracod taxa. The genus Bennelongia De Deckker & McKenzie, 1981 (Crustacea, Ostracoda) occurs in Australia and New Zealand, and has recently shown potential for high speciosity, after the description of nine new species from Western Australia. Here, we focus on Bennelongia from eastern Australia, with the objectives of exploring likely habitats for undiscovered species, genetically characterising published morphological species and scanning classical species for cryptic diversity. Two traditional (morphological) species are confirmed to be valid using molecular evidence (B. harpago De Deckker & McKenzie, 1981 and B. pinpi De Deckker, 1981), while three new species are described using both morphological and molecular evidence. Two of the new species belong to the B. barangaroo lineage (B. dedeckkeri sp. nov. and B. mckenziei sp. nov.), while the third is a member of the B. nimala lineage (B. regina sp. nov.). Another species was found to be genetically distinct, but is not formally described here owing to a lack of distinguishing morphological features from the existing species B. cuensis Martens et al., 2012. Trends in diversity and radiation of the genus are discussed, as well as implications these results have for the conservation of temporary pool microfauna and our understanding of Bennelongia’s evolutionary origin.
Highlights
Many regions of the earth have been flagged as having poorly documented diversity for inland aquatic crustaceans, such as the Nearctic and Neotropic Amphipoda (Väinölä et al 2008) or the African and South American Ostracoda (Martens et al 2008)
Karanovic 2007) species have been found in previously unexplored habitats of Australia, while a high number of cryptic lineages have been identified in desert spring amphipods of inland Australia (Murphy et al 2009) and freshwater shrimps of eastern Australia (Cook et al 2006)
57 COI sequences of 531bp were obtained from 14 Bennelongia populations throughout Queensland and New South Wales
Summary
Many regions of the earth have been flagged as having poorly documented diversity for inland aquatic crustaceans, such as the Nearctic and Neotropic Amphipoda (Väinölä et al 2008) or the African and South American Ostracoda (Martens et al 2008). For each case this can be due either to a low diversity in the region, or to the fact that the region is understudied. Already a high number of copepod (T. Karanovic 2004), branchiopod (Timms 2012) and ostracod (I. Karanovic 2007) species have been found in previously unexplored habitats of Australia, while a high number of cryptic lineages have been identified in desert spring amphipods of inland Australia (Murphy et al 2009) and freshwater shrimps of eastern Australia (Cook et al 2006)
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