Bennelongia barangaroo, De Deckker, 1981

Martens, Koen, Halse, Stuart & Schön, Isa, 2013, On the Bennelongia barangaroo lineage (Crustacea, Ostracoda) in Western Australia, with the description of seven new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 66, pp. 1-59 : 16

Bennelongia barangaroo lineage

Remarks

De Deckker (1981a) described B. barangaroo from Lake Buchanan (QLD – Type locality), but also reported the same species from other localities in QLD, NSW, SA, WA and New Zealand. However, as in De Deckker’s (1981a) re-description of B. australis (Brady, 1886) (see Martens et al. 2012), at least two different species within this lineage were illustrated under the same name. The (type) specimens of B. barangaroo in De Deckker’s (1981a) figure 7 from Lake Buchanan have a short, sub-quadrate, slightly ventrally pointed lapel on the antero-ventral side of the RV. The specimens from a pool 25 km N of Cue (WA) ( De Deckker 1981a: fig. 9), however, appear to have an elongated lapel, much as is the case in B. calei sp. nov. (see below). We thus decided previously ( Shearn et al. 2012) that the true B. barangaroo needs to be established based on new material from the type locality. Fortunately, De Deckker (1981a) illustrated the valves and soft parts of the holotype male, which facilitated identification, and allowed Shearn et al. (2012) to confidently describe B. dedeckkeri as a different species within the B. barangaroo lineage. Shearn et al. (2012) also described B. mckenziei as a second new species from QLD, characterised by a total absence of the lapel on the RV.

Diagnosis of the B. barangaroo lineage

All species of the B. barangaroo lineage (re-)described here share a number of features: all have relatively elongated and wide (in dorsal view) carapaces, mostly green in colour, relatively smooth (but hirsute) in adults. The RV has an internal eyelet at the posteroventral internal side, mostly situated directly internally of the lapel. This eyelet is best visible with transparent light; although in most species it is also visible on SEM micrographs (see various illustrations below).