Biodiversity of Non-Marine Ostracoda (Crustacea) of Botswana: An Annotated Checklist with Notes on Distribution

Abstract

Botswana constitutes a major gap in our knowledge of the distribution of Ostracoda in the region of Southern Africa, restraining thorough biogeographic interpretations. We combine records from previously published surveys along with our own field collections to provide a collation of living and fossil (Late Pleistocene to Holocene) Ostracoda recorded in Botswana. Our survey yielded 17 species, of which nine species have not been recorded before in the country. Including the present update, 54 species (45 living and nine fossil or subfossil) belonging to 22 genera of five families (with 76% species belonging to the family Cyprididae) are currently reported from Botswana. Yet, 23 taxa are left in open nomenclature, indicating the urgent need for sound systematic studies on harmonizing taxonomy of Southern African ostracods, especially of those inhabiting small temporary waterbodies, considered as threatened with extinction before being properly described or discovered. This updated checklist provides detailed information about the distribution and habitat of each recorded species. Species richness, distribution patterns, and diversity of ostracod species regionally and in different freshwater ecoregions are also discussed. We found low alpha (site) diversity (mean 3.3 species per site) and a significant difference in species composition and beta diversity of the Okavango ecoregion versus the Kalahari and Zambezian Lowveld ecoregions.

Evidence for Conductivity- and Macroinvertebrate-Driven Segregation of Ostracod Assemblages in Endorheic Depression Wetlands in North West Province of South Africa

“…Species composition of the ostracod inventory of the North West known so far shows, as expected, that the general pattern of suprageneric taxonomic diversity with the most species-rich family Cyprididae (19 species, 73% of the total species richness of 26 species) and subfamily Cypridopsinae (9 species, 35%) is similar to that of the non-marine surface ostracod species inventories of the KwaZulu Natal (75% of species in Cyprididae and 21% in Cypridopsinae: [67]), of the Eastern Cape (77% species in Cyprididae and 26% in Cypridopsinae: [21]), as well as of Botswana (76% species in Cyprididae and 24% in Cypridopsinae: [68]). The most common and abundant ostracod species collected during the present study are widespread taxa which are not rare or threatened.…”