Family PARARTEMIIDAE Daday, 1910

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Family PARARTEMIIDAE Daday, 1910

Introduction

The Parartemiidae contain just Parartemia with eight described species (Linder 1941; Weekers et al. 2002; Timms 2004) and many more known species, as yet undescribed (A. Savage, pers. comm.; P. Hudson, pers. comm; Timms, unpublished data). Until recently, Parartemia was placed in the Family Branchipodidae (e.g. Brtek & Mura 2000), but sometimes recognised as distinct from the other diverse genera in this family (Brendonck 1995) by being placed in a subfamily of its own, the Parartemiinae (Daday 1910; Brtek 1997). Weekers et al. (2002), using ribosomal DNA evidence, demonstrated the uniqueness of Parartemia and hence its status as a monogeneric family, and also its close relationship to Artemia, the other distinctively halophilic anostracan. They share enough characteristics to be grouped as the suborder Artemiina within the Anostraca (Weekers et al. 2002).

Members of the geuns Parartemia are characterised by having each rigid basal part of the penes with two spines, one promimal and another distal. The eversible distal part of the penes is inflated, variable and complex. The proximal one third (or less) of the basal antennal segments is fused to form a clypeus which bears anteriorally paired blade-like frontal processes and dorsally paired digitiform process (see Brendonck (1995) and Timms (2004) for details). The genus is endemic to Australia where it is the ecological equivalent of the worldwide Artemia in inland saline environments.