Assigning the Australian clam shrimp Eoleptestheria (Branchiopoda: Spinicaudata: Leptestheriidae) to a new species status.

We assign the only Australian leptestherid clam shrimp, Eoleptestheria ticinensis (Balsamo-Crivelli, 1859) to a new species status, Leptestheria timmsi sp. nov., based on the latest molecular phylogeny of spinicaudatan clam shrimps from a previous study. We provide a redescription of the species, highlighting morphological details not explored previously for this species. We also present a comparative account of all Eoleptestheria species and populations throughout the world. The head morphology of Leptestheria timmsi sp. nov. overlaps with other populations of Eoleptestheria and a few Leptestheria species. The telsonic and cercopod marginal spines seem to increase in size posteriorly in L. timmsi sp. nov., unlike in many other Eoleptestheria populations.