Pinto Ricardo L, Jocqué Merlijn
University of Brasília, Institute of Geosciences, Laboratory of Micropaleontology, ICC-Ala Central, Subsolo ASS339/10, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Asa Norte, Brasília/DF, CEP 70910-900, Brazil.
Zookeys. 2013 Jul 1(313):45-59. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.313.4904. Print 2013.
Passively dispersing aquatic invertebrates such as Ostracoda in restricted aquatic habitats such as bromeliads remain an intriguing observation considering the highly specialised dispersal vectors needed for efficient colonisation. Here we describe a new species of Elpidium, Elpidium merendonense sp. n., collected from bromeliads in the cloud forest from Cusuco National Park, Honduras. Elpidium merendonense sp. n. is a small to medium-sized species that can be easily distinguished from its congeners by its unique outgrowth at the posterior end of the left valve, visible especially in females. The species was common all through the park occurring at a wide range of altitudes and in different species of bromeliads. This finding is the first freshwater ostracod species described from Honduras and is in agreement with the prediction that the genus Elpidium contains a large number of species with small geographic distributions. We update the list of described species of Elpidium and present a key to species.
考虑到在凤梨科植物等受限水生栖息地中高效定殖所需的高度专业化扩散媒介，像介形纲这样的被动扩散水生无脊椎动物仍然是一个有趣的观察对象。在这里，我们描述了一种新的艾氏介属物种，梅伦东艾氏介，新种，它是从洪都拉斯库苏科国家公园云雾森林中的凤梨科植物上采集到的。梅伦东艾氏介，新种，是一种中小型物种，通过其左瓣后端独特的突出物可轻易与同属其他物种区分开来，在雌性个体中尤为明显。该物种在整个公园都很常见，分布于广泛的海拔高度且存在于不同种类的凤梨科植物中。这一发现是洪都拉斯描述的首个淡水介形纲物种，并且与艾氏介属包含大量地理分布范围小的物种这一预测相符。我们更新了已描述的艾氏介属物种列表并给出了物种检索表。
