Description of five new species of Schellencandona Meisch, 1996 (Ostracoda: Candoninae) from the southern French Alps, a highly diversified area for groundwater ostracods

We describe five new species of the genus Schellencandona Meisch, 1996 (Ostracoda, Candoninae) collected in the southern French Alps. Four of these species, S. danielopoli sp. nov., S. capderreyae sp. nov., S. mercantourensis sp. nov., and S. claretae sp. nov., are related to S. simililampadis (Danielopol, 1978), a species previously described from southern France. The fifth species, S. malardi sp. nov., is related to the species of Schellencandona present in the Northern Alps. These five new species were collected in the interstitial habitats of rivers, generally deep inside the bedsediment (i.e., at a depth of about 90 cm into the sediment), and show some morphological characteristics linked to a specialisation to live in groundwater (e.g., long aethetascs, large oocytes). Schellencandona danielopoli and S. claretae have a large geographic distribution and a wide altitudinal range. Schellencandona mercantourensis is present at high elevation in two different rivers. The last two species, S. capderreyae and S. malardi, occur at low-elevation sites in a single river. They can be considered vulnerable to future climatic changes in the Mediterranean region.