The Non‐swimming Chydorid Cladocera of Wet Forests, with Descriptions of a New Genus and Two New Species

Included among the diversified aquatic fauna occurring in the water associated with bryophytic coverings of cloud forests and rain forests and with the bottom litter of such forests are two closely related species of chydorid Cladocera – Bryospilus repens gen. et sp. nov. known from Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and New Zealand, and Bryospilus bifidus gen. et sp. nov. known only from New Zealand. Beyond the certainty that these species belong in the subfamily Aloninae because of the nature of their mandible articulation, the location of the minor headpores in a far lateral position, and the general pattern of setation on the trunk limbs, little more can be said. In several respects, most strikingly the lack of a compound eye and certain peculiarities of the mandible articulation, Bryospilus resembles Monospilus more closely than any other chydorid, although this may have resulted from convergence. The species are quite unique in their reduction of setation on the antennae and trunk limb I. The animals cannot swim. Instead they crawl about slowly but effectively in the wet bryophytes and forest litter. They have been collected from as high as 3–5 m above the forest floor, presumably having got there by their own efforts. This habitat is suspected to be comparable in its continuity over time to the ancient lakes of the World and hence can be expected to harbor other “endemic” species as well.