ABSTRACT

Nanocopia minuta was collected from an inland marine cave on Bermuda. This new genus is reminiscent of Platycopia in its cephalic appendages and in the 5th legs of the male. The 1st leg has a 3-segmented exopod and a 1-segmented endopod. The other legs show reductions with no armature along the inner margin of the exopods and with 2-segmented endopods in the female. Only 2nd and 3rd legs bear two outer spines on the first exopodal segment. Owing to similarities in sexual characters, mouthparts, and modifications of the swimming legs, Nanocopia and Platycopia are considered more closely related to each other than either is to Antrisocopia. Platycopioida now contains three genera of which two are found only in Roadside Cave. The order has retained several primitive characters and seems to have separated early from the gymnoplean stem.


 

Audun Fosshagen, University of Bergen, Department of Fisheries and Marine Biology, PO Box 7800, N-5020 Bergen, Norway. – Thomas M. Iliffe, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Department of Marine Biology, Galveston Texas 77553-1675, USA.
E-mail: audun.fosshagen@ifm.uib.no –  iliffet@tamug.edu

Keywords: Copepoda; Platycopioida; Nanocopia; anchialine caves; phylogeny; biogeography.