Cladocerans from Brazil: Families Chydoridae and Eurycercidae

For a large number of cladoceran researchers, the Eurycercoidea – members of the Families Chydoridae and Eurycercidae – are the most difficult in terms of their taxonomical identification.  In part, the difficulties are related to the large number of existing species; 53% of the cladocerans recorded from Brazil (Elmoor-Loureiro, 2000) and, in the world, 47% of the known species (Forró et al., 2008).

Another difficulty is due to the taxonomy of the group, which takes into account characters of difficult observation, such as the cephalic pores and the morphology of the thoracic limbs. In addition, this group is undergoing on intense revision, particularly in the last 20 years, leading to transfers of species to new genera and description of new species.

In this context, it was opportune to consolidate the latest information on the taxonomy, occurrence and distribution of Eurycercoidea in Brazilian waters. Even more important would be to provide access to this information for non-taxonomist researchers and students in a simple and agile way. Hence, came the idea of ​​this site.

Here you will find an index of the species already reported to Brazil, which will link you to the species pages. Each species page presents a brief description and images, a map with records of occurrence in Brazilian continental waters and comments on its taxonomy.

For the species pictures, this site had the collaboration of Francisco Diogo Rocha Sousa, responsible for great parte of the images; some fotos were provided by Ciro Joko. In the construction of the distribution maps of the species, Marcela Campos Gomes was fundamental in surveying the geographic coordinates of the occurrences present in the literature. My thanks to all!

The review work on the occurrence of the species and the construction of this site obtained funding from CNPq (CT-Hidro 39/2006).