Boeckella palustris is a species of copepod found in South America. It inhabits shallow pools, including the highest body of water ever to have yielded a crustacean, at an altitude of 5,930 m (19,460 ft) in the Andes. It was described independently by two scientists in 1955, using material brought back by different European expeditions to the same region.
| Boeckella palustris | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Copepoda |
| Order: | Calanoida |
| Family: | Centropagidae |
| Genus: | Boeckella |
| Species: | B. palustris
|
| Binomial name | |
| Boeckella palustris (Harding, 1955)
| |
| Synonyms [1] | |
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Description edit
Males of B. palustris are 1.5–2.3 millimetres (0.059–0.091 in) long, and females 1.9–2.8 mm (0.075–0.110 in).[2] The antennules are relatively short.[2] B. palustris can be distinguished from other members of the genus Boeckella by the form of the fifth leg in males.[2]
Distribution and ecology edit
Boeckella palustris has a Páramo–Punan distribution,[3] being found in southern Peru, and close to the border between Bolivia and Chile.[2] It lives in "small, shallow bodies of water", a habitat it shares with Boeckella calcaris.[2]
Boeckella palustris shares the record for the crustacean living at the highest altitude with the fairy shrimp Branchinecta brushi; both were found on December 13, 1988 in the same pool at an altitude of 5,930 metres (19,460 ft) near the summit of the stratovolcano Cerro Paniri (22°05′S 68°15′W / 22.08°S 68.25°W) in the Antofagasta Region of Chile.[4] The only higher record, which claimed that Branchinecta paludosa occurred at 97,000 feet (30,000 m) is "almost certainly a typographical error".[4]
Taxonomy edit
Boeckella palustris was originally described as Pseudoboeckella palustris by John Philip Harding in 1955, using material gathered by the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition to Lake Titicaca in 1937.[5] The genus Pseudoboeckella was subsumed into Boeckella in 1992 by Ian A. E. Bayly of Monash University, Australia, as no reliable character could be found to distinguish the two.[2] The species was independently described as Pseudoboeckella peruviensis in 1955 by Heinz Löffler using material from a 1953–1954 expedition to the Andes under Hans Kinzl,[6] but Harding's description has priority, having been published on July 29, 1955, eleven weeks before Löffler's paper was read, on October 13, 1955.[2] The species epithet palustris is Latin for "of the marsh" and indicates its common habitat.[7]
References edit
- ^ T. Chad Walter (2010). T. C. Walter; G. Boxshall (eds.). "Boeckella palustris (Harding, 1955)". World Copepoda database. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved June 11, 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g Ian A. E. Bayly (1992). "Fusion of the genera Boeckella and Pseudoboeckella (Copepoda) and revision of their species from South America and sub-Antarctic islands" (PDF). Revista Chilena de Historia Natural. 65: 17–63.
- ^ Silvina Menu-Marque; Juan J. Morrone; Cecilia Locascio de Mitrovich (2000). "Distributional patterns of the South American species of Boeckella (Copepoda: Centropagidae): a track analysis". Journal of Crustacean Biology. 20 (2): 262–272. doi:10.1651/0278-0372(2000)020[0262:DPOTSA]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 1549342.
- ^ a b Thomas A. Hegna & Eric A. Lazo-Wasem (2010). "Branchinecta brushi n. sp. (Branchiopoda: Anostraca: Branchinectidae) from a volcanic crater in northern Chile (Antofagasta Province): a new altitude record for crustaceans" (PDF). Journal of Crustacean Biology. 30 (3): 445–464. doi:10.1651/09-3236.1.
- ^ J. P. Harding (1955). "Percy Sladen Trust Expedition. XV. Crustacea: Copepoda". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 3rd series. 1 (3): 219–247. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1955.tb00015.x.
- ^ Heinz Löffler (1955). "Die Boeckelliden Perus. Ergebnis der Expedition Brundin und der Andenkundfahrt unter Prof. Dr. Kinzl 1953/54". Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Mathematisch-wissenschaftliche Klasse). 164: 723–746.
- ^ Archibald William Smith A Gardener's Handbook of Plant Names: Their Meanings and Origins, p. 258, at Google Books