Cladocera (Crustacea, Branchiopoda) species of Bahia State, Brazil: a critical update on species descriptions, distributions, and new records

Abstract

Despite the rising interest in cladoceran biogeography worldwide, many species distributions are still unknown to science, especially in naturally rich freshwater of the Neotropics. Herein we present a checklist of the taxa, giving the distributions of the valid species throughout 13 hydrographic basins within the two freshwater ecoregions of Northeastern Mata Atlântica and São Francisco. Superorder Cladocera comprises 72 known species in Bahia State classified into two orders: the Anomopoda, represented by Chydoridae (36 spp), Daphniidae (7), Macrothricidae (6), Bosminidae (4), Moinidae (3) and Ilyocryptidae (2); and Ctenopoda, represented by Sididae (8 spp). Species from the orders Onychopoda and Haplopoda are still lacking in Neotropical waters. The first compilation of the data on the Cladocera of Bahia, Brazil, is represented by this checklist and contains 38 new records for the state. Critical remarks on species distributions, as well as detailed information on sampling sites and geographic coordinates are also included.

Keywords
Biodiversity; drainage basins; Neotropical freshwaters; new records