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searchable PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

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AMCS Bulletin 5 Reprintthe groups which demonstrate these relationshipswere discussed in detail by Cole and Minckley (1972)and include sphaeromatid and cirolanid isopods andthermosbaenaceans. Additional parallelisms also occurin amphipods of the genus Bogidiella (species in theCaribbean region, South America, southern Europe,Africa and western Asia; see Ruffo, 1963,1970) andasellid isopods of the subfamily Stenasellinae (Coleand Minckley, 1972). This subfamily is representedby several genera and occurs in the subterraneanwaters of Europe, western Asia, tropical Africa, andnorthern Mexico. Mexistenasellus coahuila is one ofonly three representatives of this group in the WesternHemisphere and was described by Cole and Minckley(1972) from the same thermal spring basin that is inhabitedby Mexiweckelia colei and M. particeps (seeFig.7).It is also interesting that the sole representativeof the primitive crustacean order Thermosbaenacea inthe Western Hemisphere is known only from Ezell's<strong>Cave</strong> which presumably contains the same undergroundwater as that of the nearby artesian well 10-cality of Mexiweckelia texensis. This order is representedby five SUbterranean, brackish and fresh waterspecies of the genera Monodella (4 spp.) and Thermosbaena(1 sp.) in southern Europe and North Africaand one species (Monodella texana) in Texas (Rouch,1964; Maguire, 1965). The North American species,while showing a definite relationship to the European<strong>for</strong>ms, is probably different enough, however, to warranta separate generic status (Rouch, pers. comm.,1968).Continued biological investigations of the subterraneanbiotopes of the greater Caribbean region willundoubtedly lead to additional discoveries of marinerelict crustaceans and shed further light on the zoogeographicrelationship between the invertebrate faunaof this region and the peri-Mediterranean area.ACKNOWLEDGMENTSI am grateful to Edward Alexander, William R.Elliott, Leslie Hubricht and James R. Reddell <strong>for</strong>making available specimens of the new species <strong>for</strong>TEXASFig. 7. Distribution of the genus Mexiwecke/ia: 1, 2, M. co/ei and M. particeps; 3, M. mitchelli; 4, M. texensis.11

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