A MEDITERRANEAN ORIGIN FOR THE VELDRIF (SOUTH-AFRICA) ARTEMIA LEACH POPULATION

This is the first attempt to identify an Artemia (Branchiopoda, Anostr aca) population from the southernmost point of the African continent ( Veldrif, Saldanha Bay, South Africa). Adult populations laboratory-rea red from original cysts gave a male/female ratio of 1:1, demonstrating the presence of a bisexual strain. Females were morphologically simil ar to those belonging to the Mediterranean diploid bisexual population s of Artemia tunisiana Gunther. Regression functions and multivariate discriminant procedures applied to morphometric data produced results which support this observation. Crosses between the South African and a bisexual Spanish population were fertile, as were those between F1 i ndividuals. The results demonstrate that the South African bisexual po pulation belongs to the A. tunisiana species, until now believed to be endemic only to the Mediterranean region.