Bogidiella indica, a new species of subterranean amphipod crustacean (Bogidiellidae) from wells in southeastern India, with remarks on the biogeographic importance of recently discovered bogidiellids on the Indian subcontinent

Bogidiella indica, new species, is described from three water wells in southeastern India, including a bore-well on the campus of Acharya Nagarjuna University in Nagarjunanagar, a water well in Guntur town, and an agricultural well in the Godavari and Krishna Basin, all in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. The new species is assigned to the genus Bogidiella Hertzog and to a newly designated species group within the genus. Despite the near circum-global distribution of the family Bogidiellidae, only a single, partially intact specimen of a bogidiellid had been collected from the Indian subcontinent prior to the discovery of specimens from the well in Nagarjunanagar.  Including the new taxon described in this paper, the family Bogidiellidae contains 35 genera and 106 species. Although B. indica is closely similar to other species presently assigned to the genus Bogidiella, it is easily distinguished by a proportionately shorter and relatively heavily spinose pereopod 5. The sexes are generally similar except that the male bears a large, distally modified apical spine on the inner ramus of uropod 1. The location of  the well sites within 45 to 50 km of the eastern coast of India strongly suggests that they lie in an area that was submerged under shallow marine water within the last 1 million years.