288
(1979) report finding Artemia salina (Linnaeus, 1758)
in Didwana Lake, Rajasthan, India. They report both
males and females without giving any indication of relative percentages for the sexes. Browne (1992) notes
that many parthenogenetic populations of Artemia contain a small number of males. He also indicates that
only parthenogenetic populations of Artemia have been
confirmed on the Indian Subcontinent. In view of this
and the difficulty discussed in Browne & Bowen (1991)
of identifying bisexual species in this genus notable
for its sibling species, the Artemia at Didwana Lake
need to be studied carefully before their identity can
be established.
Five new species names have been proposed for
anostracans collected on the Indian Subcontinent since
Bond (1934). Three of these described by Qadri &
Baqai (1956), Tiwari (1958), and Baid (1975) proved
to be synonyms of previously described species. We
include one of the remaining two with the warning it may also prove to be a synonym. This one,
Branchipodopsis acanthopenes (Malhotra & Duda,
1970), was poorly described and incorrectly assigned
to the genus Branchinecta. Tiwari (1972) corrected the
generic assignment and stated that he considered it a
synonym of Branchipodopsis affinis Sars, 190 I. However; since Tiwari did not examine the type specimens
and the drawings of Malhotra & Duda (1970) appear
rather different from B. affinis, we consider the status
of this nominal taxon is still questionable and in need
of study. The only clearly valid new species described
from the Indian Subcontinent is Branchinella hardingi (Qadri & Baqai, 1956) which was first collected
in Karachi District, Sind, Pakistan and incorrectly
assigned by these authors to the genus Streptocephalus.
Tiwari (1971) corrected the generic assignment and
redescribed the species from specimens collected in
Chhatarpur District, Madhya Pradesh, India.
The 15 species of Anostraca, including two of
uncertain status, now known to occur on the Indian
Subcontinent are: Artemia sp. (reportedly a bisexual form of undetermined species); Artemia parthenogenetica Bowen & Sterling, 1978; Branchinecta orientalis Sars, 1901; Branchinella hardingi
(Qadri & Baqai, 1956); Branchinella kugenumaensis (Ishikawa, 1895); Branchinella ornata Daday,
1910; Branchipodopsis acanthopenes (Malhotra &
Duda, 1970) (in need of reevaluation); Branchipodopsis affinis Sars, 1901; Branchipus schaefferi Fischer,
1834; Chirocephalus priscus (Daday, 1910); Streptocephalus dichotomus Baird, 1860; Streptocephalus
echinus Bond, 1934; Streptocephalus longimanus
Bond, 1934; Streptocephalus simplex Gurney, 1906;
Streptocephalus spinifer Gurney, 1906.
The list of species presented in Battish (1992; 127)
contains numerous errors. This is unfortunate as his
identification manual of Indian aquatic invertebrates
is likely to receive wide circulation on the subcontinent.
Methods and materials
Denton Belk examined specimens at the Smithsonian
Institution, British Museum (Natural History), Indian Museum, and the School of Biological Sciences
of Madurai University. In addition, he studied anostracans in the private collections of S. K. Battish,
N. Munuswamy, and M. K. Durga Prasad. At the end
of September and mostly during October of 1979 and
1980, he spent 12 days in the field collecting anostracans from pools in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh,
India. These specimens are cataloged in his collection
as DB265-287 and DB436-503.
For statistical testing, we used Version 2.0 of the
GraphPad InStat biostatistics program produced by
GraphPad Software, San Diego, California, USA.
Bond's subspecies
Bond (1934) was impressed by the similarity of the
Streptocephalus taxa he had before him. He considered them to all be closely related and was expressing
this in describing the subspecies arabicus, echinus,
and longimanus for the principal form S. simplex. He
would like to have included S. dichotomus as another subspecies of S. simplex, but accepted that it was
already a named species. While it is obvious to any
observer that these taxa appear to form a morphologically related group, taxonomists with long experience
working with Anostraca also see that the differences
are sufficient to represent full species ranking for echinus and longimanus; and synonymy for arabicus and
simplex. This is evidenced in part by Brtek (1974) noting the probable species status of echinus and longimanus as a footnote to a listing of the named taxa in the
genus Streptocephalus. Walter Moore, in his excellent
monograph on the Streptocephalus of North America (Moore, 1966), supported the validity of several
species which are at least as morphologically similar to each other as echinus, longimanus, and simplex
are to each other. He even included laboratory culture
(1979) report finding Artemia salina (Linnaeus, 1758)
in Didwana Lake, Rajasthan, India. They report both
males and females without giving any indication of relative percentages for the sexes. Browne (1992) notes
that many parthenogenetic populations of Artemia contain a small number of males. He also indicates that
only parthenogenetic populations of Artemia have been
confirmed on the Indian Subcontinent. In view of this
and the difficulty discussed in Browne & Bowen (1991)
of identifying bisexual species in this genus notable
for its sibling species, the Artemia at Didwana Lake
need to be studied carefully before their identity can
be established.
Five new species names have been proposed for
anostracans collected on the Indian Subcontinent since
Bond (1934). Three of these described by Qadri &
Baqai (1956), Tiwari (1958), and Baid (1975) proved
to be synonyms of previously described species. We
include one of the remaining two with the warning it may also prove to be a synonym. This one,
Branchipodopsis acanthopenes (Malhotra & Duda,
1970), was poorly described and incorrectly assigned
to the genus Branchinecta. Tiwari (1972) corrected the
generic assignment and stated that he considered it a
synonym of Branchipodopsis affinis Sars, 190 I. However; since Tiwari did not examine the type specimens
and the drawings of Malhotra & Duda (1970) appear
rather different from B. affinis, we consider the status
of this nominal taxon is still questionable and in need
of study. The only clearly valid new species described
from the Indian Subcontinent is Branchinella hardingi (Qadri & Baqai, 1956) which was first collected
in Karachi District, Sind, Pakistan and incorrectly
assigned by these authors to the genus Streptocephalus.
Tiwari (1971) corrected the generic assignment and
redescribed the species from specimens collected in
Chhatarpur District, Madhya Pradesh, India.
The 15 species of Anostraca, including two of
uncertain status, now known to occur on the Indian
Subcontinent are: Artemia sp. (reportedly a bisexual form of undetermined species); Artemia parthenogenetica Bowen & Sterling, 1978; Branchinecta orientalis Sars, 1901; Branchinella hardingi
(Qadri & Baqai, 1956); Branchinella kugenumaensis (Ishikawa, 1895); Branchinella ornata Daday,
1910; Branchipodopsis acanthopenes (Malhotra &
Duda, 1970) (in need of reevaluation); Branchipodopsis affinis Sars, 1901; Branchipus schaefferi Fischer,
1834; Chirocephalus priscus (Daday, 1910); Streptocephalus dichotomus Baird, 1860; Streptocephalus
echinus Bond, 1934; Streptocephalus longimanus
Bond, 1934; Streptocephalus simplex Gurney, 1906;
Streptocephalus spinifer Gurney, 1906.
The list of species presented in Battish (1992; 127)
contains numerous errors. This is unfortunate as his
identification manual of Indian aquatic invertebrates
is likely to receive wide circulation on the subcontinent.
Methods and materials
Denton Belk examined specimens at the Smithsonian
Institution, British Museum (Natural History), Indian Museum, and the School of Biological Sciences
of Madurai University. In addition, he studied anostracans in the private collections of S. K. Battish,
N. Munuswamy, and M. K. Durga Prasad. At the end
of September and mostly during October of 1979 and
1980, he spent 12 days in the field collecting anostracans from pools in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh,
India. These specimens are cataloged in his collection
as DB265-287 and DB436-503.
For statistical testing, we used Version 2.0 of the
GraphPad InStat biostatistics program produced by
GraphPad Software, San Diego, California, USA.
Bond's subspecies
Bond (1934) was impressed by the similarity of the
Streptocephalus taxa he had before him. He considered them to all be closely related and was expressing
this in describing the subspecies arabicus, echinus,
and longimanus for the principal form S. simplex. He
would like to have included S. dichotomus as another subspecies of S. simplex, but accepted that it was
already a named species. While it is obvious to any
observer that these taxa appear to form a morphologically related group, taxonomists with long experience
working with Anostraca also see that the differences
are sufficient to represent full species ranking for echinus and longimanus; and synonymy for arabicus and
simplex. This is evidenced in part by Brtek (1974) noting the probable species status of echinus and longimanus as a footnote to a listing of the named taxa in the
genus Streptocephalus. Walter Moore, in his excellent
monograph on the Streptocephalus of North America (Moore, 1966), supported the validity of several
species which are at least as morphologically similar to each other as echinus, longimanus, and simplex
are to each other. He even included laboratory culture