Itocyclops sp. 1

Dole-Olivier, Marie-José, Galassi, Diana M. P., Fiers, Frank, Malard, Florian, Martin, Patrick, Martin, Dominique & Marmonier, Pierre, 2015, Biodiversity in mountain groundwater: the Mercantour National Park (France) as a European hotspot, Zoosystema 37 (4), pp. 529-550 : 539

Itocyclops sp. 1

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Site 7: 1 specimen. Material deposited at IRScNB, I.G. 31589.

REMARKS

The genus Itocyclops was established by Reid & Ishida (2000) to accommodate the species Speocyclops yezoensis (Ito, 1953) , known from Japan and southeastern Alaska ( USA). Subsequently, it was reported from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, and in Virginia ( Reid 2006), as well as from South Korea ( Lee et al. 2004), but it has also been found in southern France (F. Fiers pers. obs.). The surprisingly disjunct distribution, with populations composed of few individuals, suggests that the species is very rare in both terms of abundance and frequency. At present, the genus is monotypic, and the discoveries of it in the Palaearctic region may represent the “missing link” bridging the gap between the records from the Nearctic and Oriental regions. Only one specimen has been collected from the Mercantour park in the Torraca spring (Sospel), but its generic assignment requires confirmation, as does its specific status. Itocyclops yezoensis has mostly been collected from semi-terrestrial habitats (like Graeteriella unisetigera , see above), as well as in springs and wells ( Reid & Ishida 2000; Lee et al. 2004).