Bryocyclops
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| Bryocyclops | |
|---|---|
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| Bryocyclops muscicola | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Copepoda |
| Order: | Cyclopoida |
| Family: | Cyclopidae |
| Genus: | Bryocyclops Kiefer, 1927 |
Bryocyclops is a genus of freshwater-dwelling cyclopoid copepods. The prefix Bryo- for Bryophyta (Mosses) refers to the fact that the first few species were described from mosses.[1]
Species belonging to this genus are distributed in all major biogeographic realms except Antarctica, although there are only a handful of species from the Nearctic (B. muscicola) and Neotropical realm (B. campaneri and B. rochi)[2][3][4]. Researchers suspect that with increasing sampling efforts, more species will be discovered from these regions. Apart from continental habitats, some species occur on the oceanic islands of Guam, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa[5] and Christmas Island. In recent years, five new species have been described from caves in Thailand.[6]
Habitat
As its name suggests, the type species was found in damp mosses.[1] Apart from other microcrustaceans such as cladocerans, ostracods and harpacticoid copepods, only a few genera of cyclopoid copepods have managed to access semiterrestrial habitats like mosses, leaf litter, tree holes, leaf axils, bromeliads and other phytotelmata, or even man-made microhabitats (water-filled tin cans, car tires).[5][7] These habitats pose serious challenges to fully aquatic organisms, especially since they rely on passive means of dispersal (phoresis[8]). Species of the genus Bryocyclops also inhabit cave pools, groundwater and other freshwater bodies.
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