A new euryhaline copepod from Cape Town: Halicyclops dedeckeri n.sp. (Copepoda:Cyclopoida)

A new species of the widely distributed cyclopid genus Halicyclops Norman is described from hypersaline summer pools on the bed of Milnerton Lagoon, Cape Town, South Africa. H. dedeckeri n. sp. appears to be most closely related to H. thermophilus Kiefer, 1929 and H. spinifer Kiefer, 1935 in that the females of all three species bear a sharp chitinous spine on each side of the genital double-somite. Unlike H. thermophilus and H. spinifer, the new species bears one spiniform and one normal seta (in addition to the three spines) on the P4 enp 3 in both sexes. The new species is being mass-cultured in laboratory tanks for use in feeding studies on marine fish larvae.