Remarks on
‘A report on Lecanidae (Rotifera: Monogononta) from Andhra Pradesh, India’:
misidentifications and status
B.K. Sharma 1 & Sumita Sharma 2
1,2 Freshwater Biology Laboratory, Department
of Zoology, North-Eastern Hill University, Permanent Campus, Shillong,
Meghalaya 793022, India
1 probksharma@gmail.com (corresponding author), 2 sumitasharma.nehu@gmail.com
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3876.5590-2
Date of publication: 26 March 2014 (online & print)
Manuscript
details: Ms # o3876 | Received 03 December 2013
Citation: B.K. Sharma & Sumita Sharma (2014).Remarks on ‘A report on Lecanidae
(Rotifera: Monogononta) from Andhra Pradesh, India’: misidentifications and status. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 6(3): 5590–5592; http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o3876.5590-2
Copyright: © Sharma & Sharma 2014.
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use
of this article in any medium, reproduction and distribution by providing
adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.
For figures, images, tables -- click here
Lecanidae is one of the largest and most speciose families of Indian
Rotifera (Sharma 1996, 1998). Our
recent evaluation of Lecanidae diversity in India (Sharma & Sharma 2014)
highlighted various dubious lecanid reports in several routine rotifer faunal surveys
without any voucher specimens to warrant any validation, while the fuzzy
descriptions of new Lecane species from this country and the lack of
deposition of their type specimens aggravated taxonomic discrepancies. A compilation of rotifers by Dhanapathi
(2000) relying on misidentifications and poor illustrations of the taxon added
to such anomalies. This trend has
continued unabated in a report on Lecanidae from Andhra Pradesh by Siddiqi
& Karuthapandi (2013). This
communication attempts to review the said report with emphasis on
misidentifications, nomenclature discrepancies and validity of different species
to warrant rectification of anomalous reports and provide a list of valid
species from the state.
This validation of Lecane spp. reported by Siddiqi &
Karuthapandi (2013) from Andhra Pradesh is undertaken as a part our ongoing
work on ‘Monograph of Indian Freshwater Rotifera’. Our comments are based on the said
published report vis-à-vis our own examination of Lecanidae collections from
different parts of India including those from Andhra Pradesh. The present remarks are supplemented
with micro-photographs taken with Leica DM 1000 stereomicroscope fitted with
Leica DM 295 image analyzer.
Of the different new records from Andhra Pradesh (Siddiqi &
Karuthapandi 2013, Images 1–6): Lecane aculeata, L. haliclysta, L.
furcata, L. pawlowskii, L. pyriformis and L. ruttneri; all
except L. pyriformis are misidentifications. Lecane bidentata,described by Dhanapathi (1976) from Andhra Pradesh without deposited type, was
categorized as species inquirenda by Segers (1995, 2007) and Jersabek
& Leitner (2013); it has been placed on the B-list of the “List of
available names” (Segers et al. 2012) and as such suggested for removal from
zoological nomenclature
(http://89.26.108.66/LAN_CandidatePart-Rotifera-2012-03-22.pdf). Lecane donnerianus Dhanapathi,
1976, described from this state, has been synonymized (Segers 1995) with L.
ungulata. The unwarranted
listing of these taxa as valid species has been continued by Siddiqi &
Karuthapandi (2013). In addition,
our remarks on status of various species are summarized in Table 1.
In light of the above remarks, we conclude 22 valid Lecanespecies known from Andhra Pradesh instead of 33 and 26 species listed by
Siddiqi & Karuthapandi (2013) and Karuthapandi et al. (2013), respectively.
These are:
1. Lecane arcula Harring, 1914
2. Lecane bulla (Gosse, 1851)
3. Lecane closterocerca (Schmarda, 1859)
4. Lecane curvicornis (Murray 1913)
5. Lecane eswari Dhanapathi, 1976
6. Lecane furcata (Murray, 1913)
7. Lecane hamata (Stokes, 1896)
8. Lecane hastata (Murray, 1913)
9. Lecane hornemanni (Ehrenberg, 1881)
10. Lecane inopinata Harring & Myers, 1926
11. Lecane leontina (Turner, 1892)
12. Lecane luna (O. F Muller, 1776)
13. Lecane lunaris (Ehrenberg, 1832)
14. Lecane obtusa (Murray, 1913)
15. Lecane papuana (Murray, 1913)
16. Lecane pyriformis (Daday, 1905)
17. Lecane quadridentata (Ehrenberg, 1832)
18. Lecane stenroosi (Meissner, 1908)
19. Lecane tenuiseta Harring, 1914
20. Lecane tryphema Harring & Myers, 1926
21. Lecane ungulata (Gosse, 1887)
22. Lecane unguitata (Fadeev, 1925)
Lecanidae of Andhra Pradesh is less species-rich than that documented
from several other states of India (Sharma & Sharma 2014). This misleading generalization is
attributed to the fact that Rotifer fauna of this state is yet partly
explored. Of the documented
species, L. eswari merits biogeographic interest as this erstwhile
Indian endemic is a Paleotropical species (Sharma & Sharma 2009, 2014;
Segers & Savatenalinton 2010)
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