Abstract
Up to now the taxon Oxyurella tenuicaudis, described from Norway, has been claimed to occur in North America as well. However, our close study and comparison of populations from the two continents show them to be different in many major morphological details, involving principally the female and male postabdomens, labrum, headpore configuration, and the external sculpturing of the shell. The new species O. brevicaudis occurs from the Maritimes to Manitoba in southern Canada, southward throughout the region east of the Plains to Guatemala and possibly Panama. Two enigmatic outlier populations are known from the Northwest Territories and the State of Washington. A greater frequency of occurrence in the southeastern states compared with southern Canada, together with its extension of range into the Tropics, suggests that this taxon prefers the lower north temperate latitudes. Although widely distributed, its frequency of occurrence is very low.
Published Version
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