Elena Fefilova, Aleksandr Novikov, Elizaveta Popova, Maksim Golubev, Aleksandra Bakashkina, Ilya Velegzhaninov
Ancient Lake Baikal (LB) is the prime hotspot of the harpacticoid diversity. The Canthocamptidae harpacticoids in the lake can be considered at least six species flocks. The lacks of unequivocal diagnostic characters in the family species description often lead species identification to an impasse. Recently developed molecular techniques provide a powerful tool to subject copepod taxa to comparative analyses. In order to provide a new base for canthocamp-tids taxonomy and clarify the systematic in some species flocks, we analyzed the mitochondrial DNA marker COI of 103 harpacticoid specimens from LB belonging to five genera. The materials were obtained from different lake basins from the depths 0.2‒1632 m. Using DNA barcoding, we identified 23 genetic species or groups of species, it was almost 1.5 times less than number of morphological species, and divergence of some molecular lineages were not corresponding to morphological species. Results of our study were the discovery of a new species, males of some morphological species, for which only females were previously described, clarification of the level of morphological variability of some species, etc. Specifically, it became apparent that morphological and genetic harpacticoid species diversity in LB differ significantly and it has to be detected strictly in complex.
