Authors: Malgorzata A Marszalek Selvadurai Dayanandan Edward J Maly
Publish Date: 2008/12/24
Volume: 624, Issue: 1, Pages: 61-
Abstract
The genus Hesperodiaptomus Light 1938 one of the most diverse groups of freshwater copepods that occur in North and Central America plays a major role in the food webs of the alpine freshwater communities Phylogenetic relationships of these taxa remain poorly understood due to difficulties in obtaining reliable morphological characters for phylogenetic analyses To understand the phylogenetic relationships within this group we reconstructed a partial phylogeny of the genus Hesperodiaptomus based on nuclear ribosomal gene sequences Phylogenetic analyses based upon the taxa examined supported the monophyly the genus and revealed two clades The eiseni clade comprised species that are morphologically similar to Hesperodiaptomus eiseni Lilljeborg 1889 and the shoshone clade included species morphologically similar to Hesperodiaptomus shoshone SA Forbes 1882 The two groups can be distinguished by a modification of the right basis the arrangement of spinules on the distal pad of the second exopod and the degree of presence the inner lamellar expansion of the right coxaThe authors thank Dr Stanley I Dodson Dr Daniel Schindler Dr Drew Kramer Dr Blake Matthews Dr Brian Parker Dr Michael Pfrender Dr John Salinas and Ms Melanie McFarland for copepod samples and Dr Dan McLaughlin and Dr Ryan Thum for valuable comments on the manuscript This research was supported by grants from Concordia University Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Lee RG Snyder Memorial fellowship Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
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