Diversity and zoogeography of inland-water Ostracoda (Crustacea) in Israel(Levant)

The Israeli inland-water ostracod fauna numbers 53 named species belonging to 29 genera and comprising 15 subfamilies. The most diverse genera are Het erocypris and Ilyocypris, while the families Candonidae (most common in the Palearctic) and Cypridopsinae (most common in the Ethiopian) are relativel y poorly represented. The fauna are circumtropical and cosmopolitan (21%), Holarctic-Palearctic (49%), Ethiopian and Mediterranean (15%), Oriental (6% ), and endemic species (9%). Of the original five endemics described to dat e, three occur in Lake Kinneret, one has Ethiopian affinities but occurs in a northern river, and the status of the fifth species is still unknown. Th e Palearctic fauna is most likely Quaternary in origin. Four periods of Eth iopian invasion could be distinguished, two of which (end of Miocene and en d of Pliocene) were probably the most important. No truly Tethyan elements (Miocene) could be detected in the extant inland-water ostracod fauna, as t he only species with genuine marine affinities is most likely a relict of P liocene marine transgressions.