This file was created by scanning the printed publication. Errors identified by the software have been corrected; however, some errors may remain. JOURNAL OF CRUSTACEAN BIOLOGY, 13(1): 184-189, 1993 PERSISTENCE OF BRANCHINECTA PALUDOSA (ANOSTRACA) IN SOUTHERN WYOMING, WITH NOTES ON ZOOGEOGRAPHY James F. Saunders III, Denton Belk, and Richard Dufford ABSTRACT The fairy shrimp Branchinectapaludosa is a persistentresident of aestival ponds at high elevation in the Medicine Bow Mountains of southernWyoming. These populationsare far removed from the Arctic tundrahabitat that typifiesthe distributionof the species, and appear to representthe southern margin of the range in North America. All of the records for the northernUnited States and southernCanada appear to lie along the CentralFlyway that is a major migrationroute for waterfowland shorebirdsthat nest in the Arctic. Passive dispersal probablyprovides for frequentcolonization of marginalhabitats and gene flow to established populations. The fairy shrimp Branchinectapaludosa have been deposited in the University of (Muller)is widely distributedin the circum- Colorado Museum (UCM 2192, 2193, polar tundra of the Holarctic region (Vek- 2194). The Snowy Range is an axial rem- hoff, 1990). In Europe, it occurs chiefly at nant which rises about 300 m above the latitudes above 60?N, but there are isolated surrounding Medicine Bow Mountains recordsfrom the High Tatra Mountains on (Houston and others, 1978). The ponds are the borderbetween Czechoslovakiaand Po- mainly in the upperTelephone Creek drain- land at about 49?N (Brtek, 1976). Records age at elevations of 3,200-3,350 m. Most for Russia are typically along the Arctic of the ponds are underlainby the Nash Fork margin, but include the southern tip of the formation (Houston and others, 1978), and Kamchatka Peninsula at 52?N (Linder, the characteristicmetadolomite is present 1932). In North America, it is found in in all but one of the ponds. The ponds sup- Alaskaand most of the provinces of Canada port no fish and most tend to be low in ionic (Linder, 1932; Reed, 1963; Belk, 1975; Da- content (Table 1). born, 1978). There are also a few scattered Prior to our collections, B. paludosa had records from the contiguous states of the been reportedtwice from the Medicine Bow United States (Linder, 1941; Lynch, 1958; Mountains (Linder, 1941; Home, 1967). Belk, 1977; Saunders, 1981a). The occa- Linder'sreport is very likely from the same sional southern record notwithstanding, general area as the present records. The most known populations occur near the sample (USNM 78574) was collected by Ir- Arctic Ocean. ving H. Blakeon 4 July 1935 from the Med- Recent collections of B. paludosa from icine Bow Mountains, and contains rather the Medicine Bow Mountains of southern cryptic locality data: "G.C. no. 303-3 (10) Wyoming suggest that the species is both a. ch. Sta. E. Temporary pond. alt. 9,700 locally common and temporallypersistent. ft." Althoughthe 9,700 ft (2,957 m) contour Branchinectapaludosa was collected from traversesconsiderable territory in the Med- eight ponds in the Snowy Range in Albany icine Bow Mountains,the possible locations County, Wyoming (R79W, T16N, sections are drasticallyreduced by examining inter- 9, 10, 15, 16 on USGS 7.5 minute series sections of that contour with roads that ex- Medicine Bow Peak Quadrangle).This spe- isted in 1935. The most likely prospect is cies has been collected consistently since WyomingHighway 130 that skirtsthe Green 1987 in conjunctionwith studies at the Gla- Rock Campground(now a picnicarea) which cier Lake Ecosystem Experiment Site bearsthe United States Forest Service iden- (GLEES).These ponds are best character- tification number 303. A small temporary ized as aestival habitats (Eng et al., 1990; pond exists nearthe picnic areaon the south Daborn and Clifford, 1974) because they side of the Nash Fork at an elevation of always contain water but may freeze to the approximately3,000 m (R79W, T16N, sec- bottom in winter. Specimensfrom two sites tion 13 on USGS 7.5 minute series Centen- 184 SAUNDERS ETAL.: BRANCHINECTA PALUDOSA IN WYOMING 185 Table 1. Major ion chemistryof three ponds inhab- The zoogeographicalsignificance of the ited by Branchinectapaludosa in the Medicine Bow Wyomingrecords is greaterthan recognized Mountains, Wyoming. previously.The Colorado-Wyomingborder Pond near is probablythe southernextent of the North Pond near Towner Pond American distribution of B. A Lost Lake Lake Road sampled by paludosa. 17 June 1991 08 June 1991 Hore (1967) previous record of B. paludosa from the pH 6.1 7.0 7.0 Kaibab Plateauin Arizona (Belk, 1977) has Ca, mg/l 0.8 2.8 2.0 proven to be a misidentification.A descrip- Mg, mg/l 0.2 0.7 3.0 tion of what is now known to be a new Na, mg/l 0.2 0.2 1.0 speciesof Branchinectais in preparation(M. K, mg/l 0.2 0.5 0.0 and D. There is also a C1,mg/l 0.2 0.2 3.0 Fugate Belk). pre- SO4,mg/l 0.9 0.5 2.0 vious record for a site near Salt Lake City, HCO3,mg/l 2.2 12.0 4.0 Utah (Maynard, 1976), but the validity of Conductance, the report has not been confirmed despite 29.0 35.0 umho/cm 9.6 effortsby Belk to locate voucher specimens. Salt Lake City lies just south of the latitude that separates Colorado and Wyoming. nial Quadrangle).At the time the pond was Confirmed records published for the con- located in early August 1991, it was nearly tiguous United States are thus restrictedto dry, but yielded one specimen of B. palu- Irish Canyon of extreme northwesternCol- dosa. This pond remains the most likely orado (Saunders,1981 a), the plains of north match for Blake's locality despite a small central Montana (Lynch, 1958), and the discrepancyin elevation. Medicine Bow Mountains of southern Wy- Horne (1967) reported that B. paludosa oming (Linder, 1941). Lynch's specimens occurred in alpine ponds in the Medicine from Montana are in an uncataloged col- Bow Mountains, but gave no specific local- lection in the USNM (Acc. No. 294523). ity data. On the basis of elevation alone The record of B. paludosa from north- (3,000-3,500 m), the pond must be very western Colorado is very close to the Wy- close to the ones that we sampled. Further- oming border and thus is little differentin more, the chemistry is similar (Table 1). latitude from the Wyoming collections, al- Horne recalls collecting B. paludosa from a beit at a lower elevation. The ability of this pond in the upper Telephone Creek drain- population to inhabit the same pond from age as well as from a relatively large lake year to year is not known, because no sub- (Bellamy, Marie, or Mirror) in the nearby sequentattempts have been made to sample South French Creek drainage (Francis this ephemeral pond. The same area was Home, personalcommunication to Denton sampledby Powell's surveymany yearsago, Belk, 30 September 1991). The lakes in the but B. paludosa was not reported(cf. Pack- South French Creek drainage are now ard, 1883; Saunders, 1981b). G. D. Lang- stocked with trout and contain no fairy staff collected B. paludosa from seven sites shrimps. in the vicinity of the Great Divide Basin, Several unpublishedcollections add sup- Wyoming (now in D. Belk's personal col- port to the view that B. paludosais common lection); these sites are about 240 km north in the Medicine Bow Mountains and the of Irish Lakes. populations persist over time (Table 2). The Medicine Bow Mountains are Table 2. Unpublished distribution records for Branchinectapaludosa in the Medicine Bow Mountains of southeasternWyoming. Locality data Collector Status Pond near Big BrooklynLake, Albany County, 24 August 1952 J. E. Lynch USNM Acc. 294523 NE side of road several miles west of University of Wyoming Sci- J. E. Lynch USNM Acc. 294523 ence SummerCamp, 8 August 1967 >40 miles west of Laramie J. E. Lynch USNM Acc. 294523 "Jon's Pond," 10,670 ft., 3.5 km NE of Snowy Range Pass, 3 Sep- G. Langstaff D. Belk, personalcol- tember 1989 lection 186 JOURNAL OF CRUSTACEAN BIOLOGY, VOL. 13, NO. 1, 1993 thousands of kilometers from the Arctic the distribution of B. paludosa (Daborn, tundra habitat that is typical for B. palu- 1978; Anderson, 1971). Most of the ponds dosa. Nevertheless, the temporal persis- in question lie along the westernedge of the tence of these populationsargues that south- CentralFlyway which is a major migratory ern Wyoming is a stable part of the range route for birds that nest in the Arctic and for the species. The southern limit for B. winter much farthersouth (Fig. 1). The ma- paludosa in North America is at a lower jor routes displayed in Fig. 1 were derived latitude than the limit in Europe (41? versus chiefly from the movements of waterfowl 49?). Brtek (1976) considered the perma- (Lincoln, 1939). Links to Bear Lake and nent populations in Central Europe to be Great Salt Lake in Utah are especially in- typical glacialrelicts. By analogyit could be terestingin relation to those Colorado and inferred that the southern limit in North Wyoming recordsthat are west of the Con- Americais definedby relictpopulations. In- tinental Divide. These links also hint at va- deed, Belk (1977) once speculated that the lidity for the Utah recordof Maynard(1976). populations in Utah and Arizona were It is well known that waterfowlcan serve Pleistocene glacial relicts. The distribution as agents of passive dispersalfor the eggs of of B. paludosa for North America differs various crustaceans,including anostracans substantiallyfrom that recordedfor Europe (e.g., Malone, 1965; Proctor, 1964; Proctor in terms of the degreeto which the southern et al., 1967). Colonization by B.