A New Species of Elpidium (Crustacea: Ostracoda: Limnocytheridae) from Brazil and a Morphological Phylogenetic Proposal for the Genus.

Abstract

Elpidium species exclusively inhabiting confined and temporary environments, such as those of tank-bromeliads, are a source of interesting and diverse studies on taxonomy, evolution and ecology, to name a few. However, despite its great diversity of species or potential for study, this genus (and other phytotelm members) has been poorly studied. In the last years, however, description of Elpidium species increased from six before 2013 to 11 today. This study is an effort to keep uncovering its great diversity and to go further in order to deeply understand the genus Elpidium. To this end, this study describes another species in the genus, Elpidium litoreum sp. nov., and proposes a phylogenetic reconstruction of it based on morphological characters. Our results point to the monophyly of Elpidium and puts Intrepidocythere ibipora as its sister-group. Although the phylogeny revealed some interesting relations, it also exposed some incongruities that ultimately demonstrate how superficial the current knowledge about the genus is. All these questions are discussed in detail. We see this work as at the same time an effort to better understand Elpidium and a stimulus to other researches to turn their attention to the historically neglected phytotelmata community.