Daphnia ( Daphnia ) pulex Leydig, 1860

(30) Daphnia ( Daphnia) pulex Leydig, 1860 View in CoL

Indian records. Assam — Brehm (1953) Kalita et al. (2011); Bihar — Nasar (1977), Kumar et al. (2011); Himachal Pradesh — Biswas (1966), Michael & Sharma B.K. (1988); Jammu & Kashmir— Brehm (1936), Brehm & Woltereck (1939), Das et al. (1969), Balkhi (1987), Michael & Sharma B.K. (1988), Raina & Vass (1993), Dar et al. (2002), Siraj et al. (2006, 2007), Akhtar et al. (2007), Sharma K.K. & Chandrakiran (2011), Sharma K.K. & Kotwal (2011), Ahangar et al. (2012a, b); Karnataka — Ansari et al. (2008); Madhya Pradesh — Shukla et al. (2002), Mahor (2011); Maharashtra – Dhimdhime et al. (2012), Koli & Muley (2012); Rajasthan — Biswas (1971), Michael & Sharma B.K. (1988), Sharma V. et al. (2008, 2012); Sikkim — Brehm (1953); Tamil Nadu — Annalakashmi & Amsath (2011); Uttarakhand —Kumar et al. (2012); Michael & Sharma B.K. (1988); West Bengal — Datta (2011); General record— Fernando & Kanduru (1984), Sharma B.K. & Michael (1987), Murugan et al. (1998), Raghunathan & Suresh Kumar (2003).

Remarks. Valid species described from Germany ( Leydig 1860). But the populations of this taxon need to be revised worldwide, definitively there are several cryptic taxa there ( Crease et al. 2012). D. pulex in the illustrations of Michael & Sharma B.K. (1988) has too small antenna I, it could be a member of the D. curvirostris species group (see Ishida et al. 2006) instead of D. pulex .

Distribution. “Northern Eurasia, North Central and possibly South America, and Africa” ( Benzie 2005), cosmopolitan according to recent genetic studies ( Crease et al. 2012). Indeed, recently its presence is confirmed for South America (Kotov et al. 2010) and South Africa ( Smirnov 2008), but Indian populations need to be checked using both morphological and molecular methods.

Daphnia (?) pulicoides Woltereck, 1932

Indian records. Jammu & Kashmir— Brehm & Woltereck (1939).

Remarks. Doubtful taxon described from USA ( Woltereck 1932). Even if it will be found valid, its presence in India is very problematic.

Daphnia ( Daphnia) rosea Sars, 1862

Indian records. Jammu & Kashmir— Dar et al. (2002), Akhtar et al. (2007), Siraj et al. (2007), Sharma K.K. & Chadrakiran (2011); Maharashtra —Patil S.S. et al. (2008); General record— Fernando & Kanduru (1984).

Remarks. Doubtful record. D. rosea s.str. was described from Norway ( Sars 1862b). Although Benzie (2005) regarded it as a valid species, in reality, D. rosea is “a pond form” (=a junior synonym) of D. hyalina Leydig, 1860 . Recently proposed ( Petrusek et al. 2008) extreme opinion that D. hyalina is a junior synonym of D. longispina (O.F. Müller, 1776) needs further investigations to be confirmed. Also D. hyalina has been mentioned from India, but this record is unclear (see above).

Daphnia ( Ctenodaphnia) sarojae Rane, 1986

Type locality. “ Jabalpur , rain puddle near rice field on Shahpura Road about 6 km. from Jabalpur near Tewar village ” Madhya Pradesh, India ( Rane 1986b)

Indian records. Madhya Pradesh — Rane (1986b); General record— Raghunathan & Suresh Kumar (2003).

Remarks. Junior synonym of D. carinata according to Sharma B.K. & Sharma S. (1990), junior synonym of D. similis according to S. M. Glagolev (personal communication).