A B S T R A C TThe finding of a fairy shrimp population belonging to the genus Dendrocephalus in a temporary pond from the La Guajira Department of Colombia promoted the interest in evaluating this resource for its potential use for aquaculture purposes. In the present paper the population was allocated to Dendrocephalus affinis Pereira, 1984, only known so far from the type locality in Venezuela. The species was redescribed, providing new morphological observations on the male, useful in taxonomy. In addition, two characters on the female, not mentioned up to now in the genus, the presence of a baso-lateral short process with a spine in the endopod of the first thoracopod, and the presence of one square cell among all the pentagonal ones in the polyhedral resting egg, could help in the specific identification of dendrocephalid samples without males. The present is the first record of the species from Colombia.

El objetivo de este trabajo fue evaluar el cuerpo de agua y los sedimentos de una charca estacional, además de describir el ciclo de vida y proporciones de sexo de Dendrocephalus affinis en condiciones de laboratorio. La charca se muestreó desde 2010 hasta 2012, la cual se caracterizó la fisicoquímica del agua y la granulometría y metales pesados del sedimento. Simultáneamente se tomaron muestras de sedimento para recolectar los quistes usados para la descripción del ciclo de vida, la supervivencia y proporción de sexo de D. affinis en laboratorio. La charca mostró condiciones mesotróficas en época de lluvia y mayor carga orgánica en época seca. El suelo dominante fue lodoso, lo cual facilitó la retención de agua. Los metales pesados mostraron concentraciones dentro del rango habitual en estos ambientes. Los macroinvertebrados asociados estuvieron conformados por representantes de siete órdenes y 28 géneros, de los cuales los órdenes Hemiptera y Coleoptera fueron los más abundantes con el 39.7 y 31.8% respectivamente. El ensayo de laboratorio mostró que los nauplios de D. affinis vivieron 30 días, y tuvieron una supervivencia del 31.6%. Este trabajo también contribuyó con una descripción una charca estacional del ciclo de vida de D. affinis en condiciones de laboratorio. Dendrocephalus affinis mostró ser un organismo con corto ciclo de vida, de crecimiento rápido y alta tasa de supervivencia, lo cual favorece su uso como potencial alimento vivo en la acuicultura.

Eighteen species of cladocerans are recorded from a temporary pond in northern Colombia; 12 of these records are new for La Guajira Department: Diaphanosoma brevireme Sars, 1901, D. dentatum Herbst, 1968, Sarsilotona serricauda (Sars, 1901), Moina micrura micrura Kurz, 1874, M. reticulata Daday, 1905, Grimaldina freyi Neretina and Kotov, 2017, Kurzia polyspina Hudec, 2000, Leydigia cf. striata Birabén, 1939, Ovalona cf. glabra (Sars, 1905), Chydorus nitidulus (Sars, 1901), Dunhevedia crassa King, 1853 and Pseudosida sp.; this latter taxon could be an yet undescribed species. The cladoceran fauna from the surveyed area is represented mostly by widespread species and commonly found in the Neotropical regions, but local morphological data are scarce in the regional literature. Brief diagnostic descriptions of the species recorded for the Colombian cladoceran fauna are provided together with illustrations of taxonomically significant appendages, morphological remarks, notes on the variability of some species, and their distribution.

The Neotropical freshwater cladoceran Bergamina lineolata (Sars, 1901) was found in a small temporal pond in the Magdalena department. Hitherto, it has been reported in Brazil and El Salvador. It was originally described as Alonella lineolata by Sars, 1901 from Brazil and then placed to the genus Bergamina by Elmoor-Loureiro et al. (2013). This is the first record of this species in Colombia. B. lineolata can be identified by a unique combination of characters including: 1) a remarkably large and oblong postabdomen, with three denticles on distal corner; 2) basal spine of the claw very short, length less than the half claw diameter at base; 3) IDL with two setae shorter than ODL seta, armed with fine setules unilaterally in terminal half; 4) endite 1 of trunk limb I with a long smooth seta between endites 1 and 2.

Large branchiopods has been distributed in temporary waters around the world, but the knowledge about these organisms in Colombia is poorly known, especially leptesteriids, we report a new record of the Clam Shrimp Leptestheria venezuelica Daday, 1923 from the north of Colombia.