Abstract
Cladocera is an important group of freshwater zooplankton, and the species plays an important role in energy transfer and in aquatic food webs. Oxyurella longicaudis is a Chydoridae species that has been recorded in North and South America. The aim of this study is to investigate the life cycle aspects of parthenogenetic females of O. longicaudis cultured in laboratory under controlled conditions: temperature (23°C ± 05°C), photoperiod (12 h light/12 h dark), food supply, and reconstituted water. Embryonic development duration (2.3 ± 0.5 days), post-embryonic development (5.2 ± 0.69 days), mean fecundity (two eggs female-1 brood-1), total egg production (22.55 ± 3.98 eggs), average longevity (58 days), and body growth of the species were recorded. We also report the first DNA barcode for O. longicaudis isolated in Brazil, which will allow for easy identification in future zooplankton community studies. The analysis shows a genetic divergence of around 7% between our Brazilian isolate and O. longicaudisisolates from Mexico. The time of embryonic and post-embryonic development of O. longicaudis was higher than that of the other species of the same family, which contributed to lower total egg production throughout its life cycle. The genetic divergence appears to be sufficient to classify the two isolates as different species.
Highlights
Cladocera is an important group of freshwater zooplankton, and the species plays an important role in energy transfer and in aquatic food webs
Cladocerans participate in energy transfer and aquatic food webs
The aim of this study is to investigate the aspects of the life cycle of parthenogenic females of O. longicaudis cultured in a laboratory under controlled conditions and characterize its DNA barcode in order to allow for easy identification in future ecological studies
Summary
Cladocera is an important group of freshwater zooplankton, and the species plays an important role in energy transfer and in aquatic food webs. Cladocerans participate in energy transfer and aquatic food webs. Cladocerans may be filter feeders, such as family members of Sididae, Moinidae, and Daphnidae or scrapers like the Macrothricidae and Chydoridae (ElmoorLoureiro 2004; Castilho-Noll et al 2010). The latter family feeds by scraping surfaces of the macrophytes or sediment. Studies focusing on functional classification of Cladocera species are scarce, and its type of feeding is used for functional classification, so this gap in the literature needs to be addressed (Barnett et al 2007).
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