Camila Moreira-Silva‡, Francisco Diogo Rocha Sousa§, Lourdes Maria Abdu Elmoor-Loureiro|¶#, Mwapu Isumbisho¤, Hugo Sarmento«, Alberto V. Borges», Gilmar Perbiche-Neves˄Corresponding author: Camila Moreira-Silva ( camoreirads@gmail.com ) © Camila Moreira-Silva, Francisco Diogo Rocha Sousa, Lourdes Maria Abdu Elmoor-Loureiro, Mwapu Isumbisho, Hugo Sarmento, Alberto V. Borges, Gilmar Perbiche-Neves. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Moreira-Silva C, Sousa FDR, Elmoor-Loureiro LMA, Isumbisho M, Sarmento H, Borges AV, Perbiche-Neves G (2024) New data about morphology of Kurzia longirostris (Daday, 1898) (Crustacea, Branchiopoda) based in populations from the Congo River Basin. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e142148 |  |
The African Cladocera fauna is recognized by high endemism. Several studies have helped to understand the diversity and geographic distribution of some groups of Chydoridae on the continent. However, the literature indicates the presence of species whose natural distribution is presumed to be in other continents, suggesting that the diversity and endemism in Africa are still underestimated. Despite the absence of more comprehensive knowledge about morphology of Kurzia longirostris to terra typica (Oriental region), our findings reveled slightly morphological differences between Congo River populations when compared with literature data. Looking at the high morphological variability along the range of geographic distribution, it is increasingly clear that K. longirostris might be indicated as a species complex. Thus, the idea of continental endemism should be tested in a future revision of the group.