Abstract
Cladocera, commonly known as ‘water flea’ due to the jerky movements produced by their second antennae, form an important food component for planktivorous fishes and other aquatic invertebrates. The present investigation comprising a collection of zooplankton samples from a shallow pond located in the Bishnah tehsil of Jammu district has revealed the presence of 13 Cladocera species belonging to the families Daphniidae, Chydoridae, Moinidae, Sididae, and Macrothricidae. Three species of the family Sididae belonging to the genus Diaphanosoma, namely, senegal, sarsi and excisum are new species records to the cladoceran fauna of Jammu & Kashmir. Presently, a detailed morphological analysis has been made on all the three Diaphanosoma species. They have shown major differences in their body size with D. senegal being larger than D. sarsi and D. excisum. All three species have well observable variability with reference to their head size, eye size, shell duplicature, shape of posterior valve margin, and the number of denticles so present on posterior valve margin. All the three species have also shown coexistence with each other, but D. senegal was dominant in terms of population density.
Highlights
IntroductionZooplankton being an important component of aquatic biota, play an essential role in influencing all the functional aspects of an aquatic ecosystem like food web, food chain by occupying the position at primary consumer level and acting as the trophic link between bottom-up factors (primary producers) and top down regulators (higher trophic levels) (Murugan et al 1998)
Cladocera commonly known as water fleas due to the jerky movements produced by their swimming antennae are important contributors to diversity (Bronmark & Hansson 1998; Pandit et al 2016)
Studied lentic water body of Jammu showed the presence of various zooplankton comprising 13 Cladocera species belonging to the families Daphniidae, Chydoridae, Moinidae, Sididae, and Macrothricidae, including three different Diaphanosoma (Fischer, 1850) species of the family Sididae of order Ctenopoda
Summary
Zooplankton being an important component of aquatic biota, play an essential role in influencing all the functional aspects of an aquatic ecosystem like food web, food chain by occupying the position at primary consumer level and acting as the trophic link between bottom-up factors (primary producers) and top down regulators (higher trophic levels) (Murugan et al 1998) They are of considerable value as bioindicators and aid in determining the trophic status of a water body. Cladocera commonly known as water fleas due to the jerky movements produced by their swimming antennae are important contributors to diversity (Bronmark & Hansson 1998; Pandit et al 2016). The species of this genus can be divided into two groups based on their body size, head size, size of swimming antennae and width of ventral shell margin (Korovchinsky 1986)
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