Report d'une nouvelle population d' Artemia (Branchiopoda,Crustacea) en Tunisie : Sabkhet Halk El Menzel

Abstract

The brine shrimp Artemia is perhaps the most conspicuous inhabitant of hypersaline biotope. The taxonomical study of the genus Artemia in the western Mediterranean region, including Italy, southern France, the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco, revealed the presence of the genus Artemia franciscana as an invasive specie. In this work, a new population of Artemia is reported for the first time from Sabkhet Halk El Menzel. A preliminary taxonomic identification of this population was realized on the one hand by a comparative study of the shape of the ovisac of females with five other Tunisian populations belonging to the Artemia salina specie and with the American Artemia franciscana specie from Great Salt Lake and on the other hand, morphological characteristics between adult samples harvested in situ from Sabkhet Halk El Menzel and five other Tunisian Artemia salina collected from sites showing approximately the same salinity. Statistical analysis was carried out using Principal Component Analysis and by Discriminant Function Analysis. The results obtained show that Artemia from Sabkhet Halk El Menzel does not belong to the native Artemia salina specie but probably to the invasive Artemia franciscana specie. However, it is important to mention that these results must be confirmed using other methods (Morphological study, genetic identification, biochemical characterization) for confirming the taxonomy of this population.