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Updated status of Anostraca, Notostraca and Spinicaudata... 7

precise geographical location. To date, four anostracan, two notostracan and
three spinicaudatan taxa have been recorded on the island.
Lepidurus apus lubbocki is the first large branchiopod ever sampled in
the island (BRAUER, 1873, 1877). The presence of this taxon in the island is
confirmed by GURNEY (1909), who studied a Sicilian specimen of “Lepidurus
lubbocki”. After that, several authors (GHIGI, 1921; LONGHURST, 1955;
COTTARELLI & MURA, 1983; BRTEK & THIÉRY, 1995) reported the presence of
L. apus lubbocki in Sicily quoting Brauer’s papers. Lacking any recent record
of specimens belonging to the genus Lepidurus in Sicily, the current presence
of this species on the island needs to be confirmed.
GHIGI (1921) is the first author who reports the presence of “Thriops can-
criformis” (= Triops cancriformis) in Sicily. The specimens he studied, sent him
by the “Museo di Palermo”, included males. An apparently gonochoric popula-
tion (the sample consisted of 3 males and 2 females) was, in fact, found on Fav-
ignana island by COTTARELLI & MURA (1995). Conversely, ZAFFAGNINI & TREN-
TINI (1980) worked on a maleless Triops cancriformis population from Punta
Raisi, near Palermo. Other Triops cancriformis populations were recently found
on Ustica island (MARRONE, 2003), on Monte Cofano (MARRONE & NASELLI-
FLORES, 2004) and on Favignana island (MARRONE & NASELLI-FLORES, 2005).
Specimens from the Monte Cofano pond have been studied by MANTOVANI et
al. (2004). Conversely, the reports on the presence of Triops granarius in Sicily
(THIÉRY, 1987; CHAMPEAU & THIÉRY, 1990) are erroneous and based on the mis-
understanding of two works by COTTARELLI & MURA (1979, 1983).
DADAY DE DEÉS (1914) reported the presence of Cyzicus cycladoides
(Joly, 1841) in Sicily. Unfortunately, the location of the site where the speci-
mens he studied were collected was not specified. GURNEY (1909) reported
that “Estheria cycladoides” is “widely distributed in North Africa and occurs
also in Southern France, Spain and Sicily”. COTTARELLI & MURA (1979) col-
lected C. tetracerus in a pool at Torre dell’Orsa (Palermo province) and point-
ed out that this species cannot be told apart from C. cycladoides based on
morphology, the latter being possibly a synonym of the former. A population
of C. tetracerus was recently found on Monte Cofano (MARRONE & NASELLI-
FLORES, 2004).
Two Leptestheriidae species are reported in Sicily: Leptestheria daha-
lacensis and Leptestheria cf. cortieri. L. dahalacensis is reported by DADAY
DE DEÉS (1923) on the basis of specimens stored at the Museum of Natur-
al History of Berlin. Leptestheria cf. cortieri was collected in Mortelle
(Messina province) by COTTARELLI & MURA (1979). The identification of
the Leptestheria from Mortelle as L. cortieri raises some doubts, as the
authors themselves wrote (COTTARELLI & MURA, 1979, 1983). THIÉRY
(1987), BRTEK & THIÉRY (1995) and ALONSO (1996), referring to the draw-