Abstract
The male Copulatory organs, which are important for the Recent ostracode taxonomy, were compared in the ten Cythere species and the relationship between the copulatory organ and the geographic distribution was examined. For nine pairs of species whose geographic distributions overlap with each other, copulatory organs are morphologically different. Conversely, the pairs of species with similar copulatory organs show either of the following characteristics ; 1) their distribution-al areas completely isolated, or 2) their distribution-al areas are very close or more or less overlap each other, but their breeding seasons or their habitats are different. In the case of Cythere, consequently, the diversification of copulatory organ does not seem to reflect taxonomic distance between species. On the other hand, the number and the distribution of normal pore canals on the carapace were traced from the early stages when the distribution-al patterns are identical among all the Cythere species, to the adults which have their own patterns. As a result, the phylogenetic relationship of Cythere species was reconstructed with semi-quantitative estimation of the phylogenetic distance.
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