Cypria ophtalmica (Jurine, 1820), 1889

Meisch, Claude, Smith, Robin J. & Martens, Koen, 2019, A subjective global checklist of the extant non-marine Ostracoda (Crustacea), European Journal of Taxonomy 492, pp. 1-135 : 4

(7) Cypria ophtalmica (Jurine, 1820)

and Cypria lacustris Lilljeborg, 1890 :

(a) When describing Cypria lacustris, Sars (1890) mentioned that he relied on the description of the species in an unpublished manuscript by Lilljeborg. We here follow Kempf (1980 a–d) who lists the species with Lilljeborg as being the author: Cypria lacustris Lilljeborg, 1890 (in Sars 1890).

(b) Cypria lacustris is usually considered an intraspecific form, without a formal taxonomic status of its own, of Cypria ophtalmica because of the occurrence of animals with transitional characters, mainly seen in the number and structure of the female genital processes ( Meisch 2000: 217). From the examination, in recent years, of a very large number of individuals belonging to both ‘forms’ from various regions in Europe, one of us (CM) could not confirm the occurrence of ‘transitional’ animals. Furthermore, the ecology differs: Cypria lacustris almost exclusively colonizes springs, waters connected to springs and the profundal zone of lakes, while Cypria ophtalmica occurs in ponds and the littoral zone of lakes. The rare ‘transitional’ individuals recorded in the literature might be the result of very occasional hybridisation between two separate species, though this needs to be confirmed, preferably with molecular methods. In conclusion, Cypria lacustris is listed as a valid species in the present list.