ANOSTRACA OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

There are 15 species of Anostraca belonging to 6 genera on the Indian Subcontinent. These are: Artemia sp. (reportedly a bisexual form of undetermined species); Artemia parthenogenetica Bowen and Sterling, 1978; Branchinecta orientalis Sars, 1901; Branchinella hardingi (Qadri and Baqai, 1956); Branchinella kugenumaensis (Ishikawa, 1895); Branchinella ornata Daday, 1910; Branchipodopsis acanthopenes (Malhotra & Duda, 1970); Branchipodopsis affinis Sars, 1901; Branchipus schaefferi Fischer, 1834; Chirocephalus priscus (Daday, 1910); Streptocephalus dichotomus Baird, 1860; Streptocephalus echinus Bond, 1934; Streptocephalus longimanus Bond, 1934; Streptocephalus simplex Gurney, 1906; Streptocephalus spinifer Gurney, 1906. Comparing numbers of species for southern India with other reasonably well studied areas, demonstrated that anostracan species richness is higher in the climatically more varied temperate regions than it is in the more uniform tropics. Tropical South India has six species compared to 13 in Arizona (USA), 19 in California (USA), 10 in Morocco, and 14 in Italy.