Marin I.N.1, Palatov D.M.2 2023. A new semi-terrestrial Cryptorchestia Lowry et Fanini, 2013 (Amphipoda: Talitridae) from the southwestern Caucasus and the Ciscaucasian Plain // Arthropoda Selecta. Vol.32. No.3: 281–292 [in English].
A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of RAS, Moscow 119071, Russia. E-mails: 1 coralliodecapoda@mail.ru , 2 triops@yandex.ru
doi: 10.15298/arthsel.32.3.05
ABSTRACT. A new species of the semi-terrestrial talitrid genus Cryptorchestia Lowry et Fanini, 2013, Cryptorchestia ciscaucasica sp.n., is described from western Abkhazia and the western part of the Ciscaucasian Plain, reaching Rostov-on-Don and the Tsimlyansk Reservoir, Russia. The new species is obviously related to the Western European C. garbinii Ruffo, Turaco et Latella, 2014. Both species are genetically separated for 2.5% by COI mtDNA gene marker, geographically isolated and can be easily distinguished by the shape of antennas I–II and the spinulation of propodus (palm) of both gnathopods I–II in males and females. It is very likely that these species were separated by episodes of cooling/glaciation, the most powerful of which occur during the Cromerian Stage of the Middle Pleistocene, about 0.5–0.8 Mya, and survived during some unfavorable periods in the southern refugium of the Caucasus and southwestern Europe, respectively.
KEY WORDS: Diversity; Crustacea; Cryptorchestia; new species; phylogeny; glacial refugia; barcoding; speciation; Pleistocene.