Taxonomic Atlas of the Water Fleas, “Cladocera” (Class Crustacea) Recorded at the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve and State Nature Preserve, Ohio by Jakob A. Boehler, Tamara S. Keller and Kenneth A. Krieger National Center for Water Quality Research Heidelberg University Tiffin, Ohio, USA 44883 January 2012 Taxonomic Atlas of the Water Fleas, “Cladocera” (Class Crustacea) Recorded at the Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve and State Nature Preserve, Ohio by Jakob A. Boehler, Tamara S. Keller* and Kenneth A. Krieger Acknowledgements The authors are grateful for the assistance of Dr. David Klarer, Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve, for providing funding for this project, directing us to updated taxonomic resources and critically reviewing drafts of this atlas. We also thank Dr. Brenda Hann, Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Manitoba, for her thorough review of the final draft. This work was funded under contract to Heidelberg University by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. This publication was supported in part by Grant Number H50/CCH524266 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Old Woman Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve in Ohio is part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS), established by Section 315 of the Coastal Zone Management Act, as amended. Additional information about the system can be obtained from the Estuarine Reserves Division, Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1305 East West Highway – N/ORM5, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Financial support for this publication was provided by a grant under the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act, administered by the Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, MD. Copies of this publication are available from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources - Division of Wildlife 2514 Cleveland Road East Huron, Ohio 44839 This publication can be downloaded at http://www.heidelberg.edu/academiclife/distinctive/ncwqr/research/reports * We greatly appreciate the efforts of Tammy Keller on early drafts of this publication and regret her death in December 2010. Introduction Both the professional field biologist and the amateur naturalist often encounter lists of Eggs animals and plants when they read published scientific reports and visit nature centers. Rarely do they have ready access to photographs for each member of the list. This document constitutes one of several chapters of a comprehensive atlas of the biota of the Old Woman Creek coastal wetland system (OWC) along the shore of Lake Erie in Ohio. This chapter provides a detailed pictorial record of a group of Daphnia retrocurva with eggs aquatic invertebrate animals called water fleas, also known as cladocerans. This atlas presents detailed photographs of critical diagnostic features that permit the Invertebrates of many kinds occur in great correct identification to species of most abundance in freshwater ecosystems, cladocerans reported to date at OWC. including Great Lakes wetlands such as the marshes and swamps that make up OWC. Cladocerans are present in a wide variety A few freshwater invertebrates, such as of freshwater habitats, especially lakes, clams and aquatic beetles, are readily ponds and wetlands. They occupy an visible because of their relatively large size. important intermediate niche in the food Many others, however, including most webs of freshwater ecosystems. Most are cladocerans, are so small that special filter-feeders, straining bacteria, tiny algae attention must be given to collecting – and and other particles from the water, whereas seeing – them. Therefore, most a few are predaceous on aquatic invertebrates go unnoticed by casual invertebrates, including other cladocerans. visitors to aquatic habitats. For many groups Cladocerans themselves are a very such as the cladocerans, once collected, important food source for many fish the ability to distinguish one kind from species. another requires careful observation through a compound microscope at Characteristics of Water Fleas magnifications as great as 1000X. Water fleas usually reproduce asexually The term “Cladocera”, though once through a process called parthenogenesis, considered to be an order within the Class in which females produce succeeding Crustacea of Phylum Arthropoda, has lost generations of females and do not mate. its taxonomic status. Rather, the name has Males and sexual reproduction are limited been retained to refer to four orders of to one or a few generations each year crustaceans that are probably not closely under specific environmental conditions. related phylogenetically. Detailed information on the complex life cycle of cladocerans can be read in Dodson and Frey (2001) and Pennak (1989). Only females are shown in this atlas unless stated otherwise. Immature F cladocerans, other than being smaller, CE possess the same diagnostic characteristics O as adults. R General features of a water flea are shown on this page. The body is divided into two obvious regions: the head (H) and a A carapace (“shell”; sometimes referred to as valves) (C) that covers the remainder of the AN body. Head structures include the first antennae (or antennules) (A), second antennae (AN), rostrum (some cladocerans) (R), fornix (F) and compound eye (CE). Some species also have an ocellus (O), or Lateral view of Alona sp. (anterior end) simple eye. Some species, such as Daphnia retrocurva, have an anterior extension of the HE head called a helmet (HE). The second antennae are much larger than the antennules and are used for swimming. They S H have two branches known as the dorsal ramus (DR) and the ventral ramus (VR). DR Swimming hairs, or setae (S), are attached to VR the second antennae. TL C The body features thoracic legs (TL), a brood chamber (in females) (BC) and a BC postabdomen (PA). A pair of postab- dominal claws (PC) protrudes from the end SS CS Lateral view of Daphnia retrocurva with eggs in brood chamber P PC PC PA ca. 25 µm Lateral view of Ceriodaphnia sp. Lateral view of Daphnia retrocurva postabdominal claw of the postabdomen. Each claw may have This publication should not be used as one or more rows of minute teeth; each row the sole source to identify the is called a pecten (P). Some species have cladocerans of OWC because it is a shell spine (SS) extending from the probable that additional families, genera carapace; some others have a cervical and species will be found in new sinus (CS) at the dorsal juncture of the collections. The references cited on the head and carapace. next page should be used to obtain definitive identifications. Resting eggs of cladocerans are occasion- ally encountered in samples. One or more Each species of water flea is illustrated and resting eggs are enclosed within a purse- described on a single page of this atlas. like, thickened part of the female carapace Because the identifying features of the called an ephippium. particular order, family and genus are repeated on each page, the page for each species can be used independently. Variations in the appearance of order, family and genus characteristics can be seen by comparing pages. Photographs are labeled with identifying letters and lines or brackets that indicate diagnostic structures. Some photographs show specimens collected within OWC; specimens from other ecosystems were used if they were of superior quality. The exact specimens photographed are recorded at the bottom of the page. Cladoceran ephippium Beneath the descriptive features, each page lists where within OWC the species Layout of this Atlas has been found. That information was derived from reports cited by Herdendorf et The following pages are organized al. (2001)*. It is likely that future alphabetically by order, family, genus and collections will reveal some of the species species. Investigators have identified 36 in additional habitats. The general ecology species of water fleas in eight families of the species is briefly summarized, (Bosminidae, Cercopagidae, Chydoridae, including its habit (such as swimmers or Daphnidae, Leptodoridae, Macrothricidae, climbers) and its functional feeding Moinidae, and Sididae) within the OWC group (such as predator). The habit and wetland system and in the adjacent wave zone of Lake Erie. We have included one * Herdendorf, C.E., R.C. Herdendorf, and D.M. species of the exotic family Cercopagidae Klarer. 2001. Catalogue of the invertebrate fauna because they are now common in Lake Erie of Old Woman Creek estuary, watershed, and adjacent waters of Lake Erie. Technical Report No. offshore of OWC and some day may 12. Old Woman Creek National Estuarine perhaps be found in the OWC system as Research Reserve & State Nature Preserve, Huron, well. Ohio. functional feeding group information is S = Smirnov, N. N. 1996. Cladocera: the generalized to the family level for each species Chydorinae and Sayciinae (Chydoridae) of the unless otherwise noted. World. In: H. J. F. Dumont, (Ed.). Guides to the Identification of the Macroinvertebrates of the All taxonomic information on each page was Continental Waters of the World. SPB derived from one or more of seven references, Academic Publishing bv. which are abbreviated as shown below followed by the page number(s): TI&H = Taylor, D. J., C. R. Ishikane, and R. A. Haney. 2002. The Systematics of Holarctic BK&D = Balcer, M. D., N. L. Korda and S. I. Bosminids and a Revision that Reconciles Dodson. 1984. Zooplankton of the Great Molecular and Morphological Evolution. Lakes: A Guide to the Identification and Limnology and Oceanography 47:1486-1495. Ecology of the Common Crustacean species. The University of Wisconsin Press. B&D = Benzie, J. A. H. 2005. Cladocera: The genus Daphnia (including Daphniopsis) (Anomopoda: Daphniidae). In: Dumont, H. J. F. (Ed.) Guides to the Identification of the Macroinvertebrates of the Continental Waters of the World.