Chirocephalidae Daday, 1910

Rogers, D. Christopher, 2003, The development of the male second antenna in Polyartemiella hazeni (Murdoch, 1884) with a morphological definition of the Chirocephalidae (Crustacea: Anostraca), Zootaxa 251, pp. 1-12 : 6-7

Family Chirocephalidae Daday, 1910

Synonymy:

Polyartemiidae Simon, 1886 Linderiellidae Brtek, 1964 Artemiopsidae Brtek, 1966 Galaziellidae Naganawa, 2001 Penes close set with bases rigid or lateroventrally expanded. Seminal vesicles present or not clearly defined. Second maxillae without setae or with a single apical seta. 11, 17 or 19 pairs of thoracopods. Two praeepipodites on all mesothoracopods, often appearing as one praeepipodite deeply cleft in some Eubranchipus .

The Chirocephalidae is comprised of eight genera with 74+ species, and is Holarctic in distribution. These eight genera are Branchinectella , Artemiopsis , Chirocephalus , Eubranchipus , Linderiella , Dexteria , Polyartemiella , and Polyartemia . Weekers, et al. (2002) present limited evidence supporting the resurrection of the genus Pristicephalus ; however, only four species (one of which was described as Pristicephalus ) in the two genera that Pristicephalus was subsumed into were analyzed out of a potential 63. Hence, their assertion to re­instate this genus may not be fully supported.

I present here a key and a checklist of the Chirocephalidae . The checklist is presented in alphabetical order. This list is not intended to present any presumed phylogenies, but does treat Eubranchipus according to Belk (1995), and the genera according to Brendonck & Belk (1997), Belk in Martin & Davis (2001), Weekers, et al. (2002), and Rogers (2002b).