Studi sui Crostacei Anfipodi 64. Bogidiella somala n.sp. delle acque sotterranee della Somalia (Crustacea Amphipoda)

The Author describes Bogidiella somala n.sp., collected in weels in the middle Uebi Scebeli valley (Somalia). The species is notably isolated within its genus by the particular morphology of the mandibles, the extremely lengthened mandibular palp (Fig. 2 A ), the broad coxal plates (Fig. 2 C) and by the morphology of the 5th-7th pair of pereiopods, which have an enlarged basipodite (Fig. 4 B, D).
B. somala (with B. tabascensis Villalobos and B. bredirti Shoemaker) has the general structure of a cavernicolous type, which contrasts with the many forms o f the mesopsammic-interstitial type. The discovery of B. somala is of notable zoogeographic interest as until now neither superficial or subterranean freshwater Gammaridae were known to exist in intertropical Africa.