Biogeography and ecology of Australian Anostraca (Crustacea: Branchiopoda)

Three anostracan genera occur in Australia, the native genera Branchinella and Parartemia and the introduced genus Artemia.The nineteen described species of Branchinella include some that are widely distributed within Australia, especially B. australiensis, and others of local occurrence.Of the eight species of Parartemia five occur in south-western Australia, one occurs across southern Australia, another is found in the south-east, and one occurs in the north-east.Branchinella species usually occur in ephemeral freshwater pools while Parartemia is halobiont, but some species from both genera occur in brackish water.Cladocerans and calanoid copepods generally occur with Branchinella and notostracans and conchostracans are often present.Parartemia generally occurs with halobiont copepods and ostracods.Some samples contained more than one species of Branchinella but there were no co-occurrences of Parartemia species.The Australian anostracan fauna is compared with that from other continents and factors influencing the distribution of anostracans are discussed.