Harpacticoida, George & Veit-Köhler & Arbizu & Seifried & Rose & Willen & Bröhldick & Corgosinho & Drewes & Menzel & Moura & Schminke, 2014

George, Kai Horst, Veit-Köhler, Gritta, Arbizu, Pedro Martínez, Seifried, Sybille, Rose, Armin, Willen, Elke, Bröhldick, Karin, Corgosinho, Paulo H., Drewes, Jan, Menzel, Lena, Moura, Gisela & Schminke, Horst Kurt, 2014, Community structure and species diversity of Harpacticoida (Crustacea: Copepoda) at two sites in the deep sea of the Angola Basin (Southeast Atlantic), Organisms Diversity & Evolution (New York, N. Y.) 14 (1), pp. 57-73 : 62-63

Species of Harpacticoida

From the 2,152 individuals of adult Harpacticoida collected, 682 species were identified. A condensed species list is shown in Appendix A. Only five of these species (0.7 %) were known to science at the time of sampling, 677 species (99.3 %) were new to science. The known species were: Marsteinia parasimilis ( Dinet, 1974) ( Neobradyidae ), Mesocletodes robustus Por, 1965 ( Argestidae ), Microsetella norvegica (Boeck, 1865) ( Ectinosomatidae ), Selenopsyllus dahmsi Moura and Pottek, 1998 ( Canthocamptidae ), and Styracothorax gladiator Huys, 1993 ( Idyanthidae ). As part of the taxonomic goal of the CeDAMar Programme (http://www.cedamar.org), a further 27 harpacticoid species have been described recently ( Bröhldick 2005; Bruch et al. 2011; Corgosinho and Martínez Arbizu 2010; George 2006a, b, 2008; George and Müller 2013; Gheerardyn and George 2010; Menzel 2011a, b; Menzel and George 2009; Pointner et al. 2013; Seifried and Martínez Arbizu 2008 Seifried and Schminke 2003; Seifried et al. 2007; Veit-Köhler 2004, 2005; Veit-Köhler and Drewes 2009; Willen 2005, 2008, 2009).

Harpacticoid densities were comparatively low, with average values of 1.37 individuals (ind.)/ 10 cm 2 (standard deviation 0.27) and 6.02 ind./ 10 cm 2 (standard deviation 1.18) at Stations 325 and 346, respectively.

Nearly 75 % of all recorded species belonged to just five families (25 %), namely Ameiridae , Pseudotachidiidae , Ectinosomatidae , Argestidae , and Neobradyidae ( Table 1).

Cletodidae showed the highest N / S ratio (38.0), as this family comprised only one species with 38 individuals across the stations. Next highest N / S ratios were calculated for Paramesochridae and Ancorabolidae . In contrast, within the species-rich families of Ameiridae , Ectinosomatidae , and Pseudotachidiidae on average only few individuals were recorded per species, resulting in low N / S ratios ( Table 1).

In total, 384 species (56.3 % of species, 17.9 % of individuals) were represented by singletons (Appendix A) and a further 111 species (16.3 %) were represented by two individuals. The most frequently recorded species were: Argestes angolaensis George, 2008 (N =92), Paradanielssenia sp. 1 (N =67), Argestes sp. 1 (N =50), Ameiridae sp. 10 (N =47), Cletodidae sp. (N =38), Neobradyidae sp. 1 (N =36), and Bradya kurtschminkei Seifried and Martínez Arbizu, 2008 (N =26) (Appendix A). Argestes angolaensis , Ameiridae sp. 10, and Bradya kurtschminkei were found only at Station 346 (Appendix A, cf. George 2008; Seifried and Martínez Arbizu 2008). The remaining four species were present at both stations.

Numbers of individuals and species in single cores were almost always higher at Station 346 than at Station 325 ( Fig. 3 ). At Station 325, a total of 172 species were found (N =348), whilst 600 species were recorded at Station 346 (N =1804) ( Table 1, Appendix A). The stations shared 90 species (Appendix A), whilst 82 and 510 species were exclusive to Station 325 and Station 346, respectively. Thus, 592 species (86.8 %) were restricted to one station only.

Community analysis

The taxonomic distribution of the species over the families also differed between the stations. At Station 325 the community was dominated by species of Pseudotachidiidae , Ectinosomatidae , Ameiridae , and Neobradyidae , which together accounted for 100 (58.1 %) of the 172 species sampled at that station ( Table 1, Fig. 2 ). In contrast, Ameiridae was the most species-rich taxon at Station 346, followed by Pseudotachidiidae , Ectinosomatidae , and Argestidae , the four families representing 421 (70.2 %) of the 600 species recorded ( Table 1, Fig. 2 ).

Figures

Fig. 3 Absolute numbers of species (red bars) and specimens (blue bars) (y-axis) found in seven Multicorer (MUC) replicates at Station 325 and eight replicates at Station 346 (x-axis) (each replicate = the sum

Fig. 2 Harpacticoid families collected from Stations 325 and 346 (Angola Basin). Families are sorted according to the total number of collected individuals N (columns) and dominance (pie charts). “Others” refer to the following families (in decreasing order from left to right): Station 325 = Paramesochridae, Huntemanniidae, Ancorabolidae, Cletodidae, Aegisthidae, Miraciidae, Rhizotrichidae, Canuellidae; Station 346 = Neobradyidae, Paramesochridae, Zosimeidae, Canthocamptidae, Idyanthidae, Miraciidae, Huntemanniidae, Cletodidae, Aegisthidae, Ancorabolidae, Tisbidae, Canuellidae, Rometidae, Dactylopusiidae