Species

1^st new species officially described and published as part of the Stygofauna inventory in Nouvelle-Aquitaine

Collections carried out in 2021 as part of the Stygofauna program in Nouvelle-Aquitaine led to the identification of an unknown ostracod crustacean in the hyporheic flow of 3 watercourses in Haute-Corrèze (the Vianon, the Luzège, and the Vézère, in the Dordogne/Garonne basin).

According to feedback from our taxonomic expert Tadeusz Namiotko (University of Gdańsk, Poland), a specialist in this group of crustaceans, these specimens were to be assigned to the genus Candonopsis and provisionally named Candonopsis sp. nov. A re-collection carried out in 2024 in the alluvium of the Vianon made it possible to recover several individuals, some of which were sent alive to our wildlife macrophotographer Jean-François Cart (see photo below), while the others, fixed in alcohol, were sent to Professor Namiotko’s team, who needed additional specimens.

Morpho-anatomical and genetic analyses of all these specimens were presented to the European ostracodological community at a congress in September 2024 (European Ostracodologists’ Meeting, Catania, Italy; see poster Kijowska et al., 2024). This work culminated in the submission in May 2025, to the journal Organisms Diversity & Evolution, of a scientific article describing the new species under the name Candonopsis danilucae sp. nov. (in honor of Dan Luca Danielopol, an eminent specialist in this group). After several rounds of review between the reviewers, co-authors, and the journal editor, the manuscript has just been published this May 28, 2026, on the journal’s website (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13127-026-00700-w):

Kijowska M., Szwarc A., Mioduchowska M., Lefebvre F., Alezine T., Chevillot X., Malard F., Douady C., Wysocka A. & Namiotko T., 2026. Integrative taxonomy of a new hyporheic ostracod species of the genus Candonopsis (Ostracoda: Candonidae) from Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France, with first evidence of Cardinium bacterial infection in groundwater crustaceans. Organisms Diversity & Evolution. DOI:10.1007/s13127-026-00700-w

The official publication of a new taxon is a highly standardized and regulated scientific process, requiring numerous exchanges between collectors, describers, writers, and reviewers, which can only be achieved over the long term and thanks to the financial support granted to the Stygofauna program.