A Mediterranean Origin for the Veldrif (South Africa) Artemia Leach Population

This is the first attempt to identify an Artemia (Branchiopoda, Anostraca) population from the southernmost point of the African continent (Veldrif, Saldanha Bay, South Africa). Adult populations laboratory-reared from original cysts gave a male/female ratio of 1:1, demonstrating the presence of a bisexual strain. Females were morphologically similar to those belonging to the Mediterranean diploid bisexual populations of Artemia tunisiana Gunther. Regression functions and multivariate discriminant procedures applied to morphometric data produced results which support this observation. Crosses between the South African and a bisexual Spanish population were fertile, as were those between Fl individuals. The results demonstrate that the South African bisexual population belongs to the A. tunisiana species, until now believed to be endemic only to the Mediterranean region.