Three new cryptic species of the freshwater zooplankton genus Holopedium (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Ctenopoda), revealed by genetic methods
Author
Rowe, Chad L.
Author
Adamowicz, Sarah J.
Author
Hebert, Paul D. N.
text
Zootaxa
2007
1656
1
49
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.179852
1a7bd113-0271-4abb-b85c-637bab541d09
1175-5326
179852
Holopedium glacialis
n. sp.
Synonymy
. All previous descriptions of
H. gibberum
from temperate North
America
are properly assigned to
H. glacialis
.
Forbes (1882)
: 641–642, Plate IX, Figs. 12–15
Herrick (1884)
: 22–23, Plate N, Fig. 11
Birge (1918)
: 693, Figs. 1060, 1061a
Brooks (1959)
: 603, Figs. 27.12a,b
Pennak (1953)
: 364–365, Figs. 227a,b
Pennak (1978)
: 365–366, Figs. 254a,b
Pennak (1989)
: 386–387, Figs. 12a,b
Dodson & Frey (1991)
: 746–747, Fig. 20.7
Etymology.
glacialis
refers to the near restriction of this species to regions of North
America
that were glaciated during the Pleistocene.
Type
locality.
Wren Lake, Ontario (
45.183º N
,
78.866º W
). This lake is situated near Carnarvon, Ontario, approximately
3 km
past the Leslie M. Frost Natural Resources Centre on Hwy
35N.
Type
specimens.
Holotype
: an ovigerous female in ethanol deposited in the
CMN
under accession number
CMNC
2007-0745 (collection date
Sept. 29th 2007
).
Paratypes
: Twenty ovigerous females, also from Wren Lake, Ontario, preserved in ethanol, deposited in the
CMN
under accession number
CMNC
2007-0746(collection date
Sept. 29th 2007
).
Material examined.
Other habitats with
H. glacialis
are listed in Appendix A.
Morphological description.
FEMALE. Representative photomicrographs are shown in
Figure 7
. The jelly coat is of the Z
type
, in which the anterior jelly curl is relatively straight and ends in a short curve posteriorly toward the carapace, and the lateral lobes are divided (see
Montvilo
et al.
1987
).
Adult female carapace lengths range from
0.68–1.30 mm
(mean
0.98 mm
), while carapace heights range from
0.75–1.82 mm
(mean
1.26 mm
). The H/L ratios range from 0.61–1.95 (mean 1.30). The ventral carapace margins usually have many, tightly-spaced spinules posteriorly, but are often smooth anteriorly.
Anal spine number is less variable than in
H. gibberum
, ranging from 11–20 (mean 15.1).
H. glacialis
typically possesses at least one basal spine on each postabdominal claw. Each claw has a row of denticles running laterally from the base of the claw to its midpoint.
MALE. Males were encountered in autumn collections. The jelly coat is present and resembles that of the female of this species. Mature males are often half the size of adult females, with individuals ranging from
0.40–0.63 mm
in length (CLR, pers. obs.). The ventral carapace margin is spinulated posteriorly, but is smooth anteriorly.
The postabdomen is long and terminates posteriorly with two postabdominal claws. A single row of anal spines runs ventro-laterally on each side of the postabdomen (range 13–17). There is one basal spine on each postabdominal claw, and each claw invariably has a row of denticles running laterally from the base of the claw to its midpoint.
Differential diagnosis.
Holopedium glacialis
can be distinguished from all members of the
H. amazonicum
species complex by its possession of at least one basal spine on each postabdominal claw. It is morphologically indistinguishable from
H. gibberum
, although they have largely allopatric distributions (
Fig. 4
a,b).
Holopedium glacialis
can be biochemically distinguished from North American
H. gibberum
at the
Gpi
locus.
Holopedium glacialis
was never found to possess
Gpi 114
, while
H. gibberum
was monomorphic for this allele. COI mtDNA sequence divergence between
H. glacialis
and
H. gibberum
averages 13.1%. Based on current evidence, individuals showing less than 4.3% divergence from a representative COI mtDNA sequence (GenBank
AF 245355
) belong to
H. glacialis
.
FIGURE 7.
Representative photomicrographs of
Holopedium glacialis
. (a) Lateral view of female in jelly coat stained with dilute fuschian red. Wren Lake, Ontario, June 13, 1994. (b,c) Lateral views of female head. (d) Lateral view of female postabdomen. (e) Lateral view of ventral carapace spinules. (f) Lateral view of male with jelly coat removed. (g) Lateral view of male head and antennae. (h) Lateral view of male antennae. (i) Lateral view of hook on male antennae. (j) Lateral view of hooks on first pair of male thoracic limbs. (k) Lateral view of male postabdomen. (l) Lateral view of male postabdominal claw. (m) Lateral view of ventral carapace spines of a male. (b–e) from Como Lake, Ontario, June 28, 1992. (f–m) from Blue Chalk Lake, Ontario, October 17, 1996.
Distribution.
Holopedium glacialis
presumably occurs over most of the formerly glaciated regions of North
America
(
Fig. 4
a), from the Coastal and Rocky Mountain ranges in the west through to the Atlantic coast in the east, excepting the central Great Plains, where habitats with suitable water chemistry are absent (see
Rowe 2000
for a discussion of the ecological requirements of
Holopedium
). It occurs as far south as the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, but in the east there are no confirmed populations south of New York State. It occurs sympatrically with
H. atlanticum
in New Brunswick and Maine, with no evidence of hybridization.
H. glacialis
is also present in the Canadian arctic, but not north of
68.5° N
latitude. The northernmost habitats were a few lakes on the Melville Peninsula, including three in which it was sympatric with
H. gibberum
, again with no evidence of hybridization.
Breeding system.
Many populations were invariant, but 43 of 59 polymorphic populations were in H-W equilibrium, suggesting that at least these populations reproduce by cyclical parthenogenesis. Males were discovered in several populations in the spring and in larger numbers in the autumn. The few single-species populations in H-W disequilibrium were due to occasional heterozygote excesses or deficits, patterns that may result from extended bouts of asexual reproduction.