Cryptorchestia garbinii n. sp. (Amphipoda: Talitridae) from Lake Garda (Northern Italy), previously referred to as Orchestia cavimana Heller, 1865, and notes on the distribution of the two species

Abstract

A new species of Talitridae, Cryptorchestia garbinii, is here described and illustrated. It was collected in Lake Garda in 1895 and initially identified by Adriano Garbini, one of the first Italian hydrobiologists, as Orchestia littorea; then as O. gammarellus in a second publication, and finally as O. bottae. In 1925, Spandl identified the specimens from Lake Garda and other localities in Europe, as O. cavimana while noticing some morphological differences with the specimens from Cyprus, the type locality of the species. These differences in taxonomic characters were disregarded or less considered by other authors over the years. Very recently, Lowry and Fanini included Orchestia cavimana in the new genus Cryptorchestia. In this paper, the populations from Lake Garda, Europe and the Balkan area are identified as a new species, named, in accordance with the new genus created by Lowry and Fanini, Cryptorchestia garbinii sp. nov. We ascribe to C. cavimana only the population from Cyprus. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:66EEE3AC-FC4A-4CA0-AE87-EF438A8AA239