BRANCHINELLA MADURAIENSIS RAJ (CRUSTACEA, BRANCHIOPODA, ANOSTRACA) SHOWN BY NEW EVIDENCE TO BE A VALID SPECIES

The fairy shrimp Branchinella kugenumaensis (Ishikawa) was long consid ered a widely, though disjunctly, distributed species occurring from J apan through eastern Asia to southern India. Attempts by Raj (1951, 19 61) to make the Indian populations a new variety (B. k. var. madurai) on the basis of antennal and frontal appendage morphology and on its d istribution pattern, were considered unconvincing by later authors. Ou r new comparison of Japanese and Indian specimens has revealed several differences. The resting egg shells of B. kugenumaensis from Japan ha ve irregular polygonal fields; whereas, the shells of the Indian taxon have lip-like units covered with spinules. Furthermore, there are lob es lateral to the basal penes in the Indian specimens that are lacking in the Japanese taxon. As well as differences in antennal and frontal appendage morphology. These differences correspond with previous illu strations of populations from both geographic regions and lead us to c onsider Raj's proposed subspecies as a valid species. This brings the number of accepted species in the genus Branchinella to 34. More speci mens will need to be evaluated from the area between India and Japan t o determine if B. maduraiensis is endemic to the Indian subcontinent o r is more broadly distributed on the Asian mainland.