A new record of N. persicus from Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province of Iran

The genus Niphargus Schiödte, 1849 is the largest group of freshwater amphipods in the World that is distributed in groundwater of Western Palearctic. The members of this taxon inhabit in a variety of underground environments such as karst areas, caves, and springs. They have to get adaptations for living in these environments. So far, 17 species including N. valachicus, N. alisadri, N. daniali, N. khayyami, N. khwarizmi, N. bisitunicus, N. sharifii, N. darvishi, N. borisi, N. kermanshahi, N. hakani, N. persicus, N. sohrevardensis, N. illamensis, N. hosseiniei,N. kurdistanensis and N. sarii have been identify from caves and karstic springs in Iran. Most species are living in karst areas along of Zagros Mountains. N. persicus was first collected and introduced from the Tir-e-Bagh spring in Marvdasht city, Fars province. The diagnostic characters for this species include the similar size of coxa in gnathopods I- II, propodi shape in both gnathopods, with two short supporting robust setae in palmar corner of gnathopod II, the presence of more than 3 lateral prominences in robust setae of maxilla I and the presence of three simple setae in inner margin of pleopod II peduncle. In this paper, a new record of this species is reported from Mansour Khani spring of Kakan village in Kohgiluyeh and Boyerahmad Province using morphological data and 28Sr DNA marker. The diagnostic characters were compared with type locality samples of N. persicus, the results showed that two populations are share 4 of 5 characters. We observed only one supporting robust seta on the inner palmar corner of the gnathopod II.

Keywords:

Taxonomy , New record , Niphargus persicus , Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province