Two girls find ostracods in a rainwater pond
Gabriel Martín has found specimens of anostracan crustaceans in a temporary pond in the province of Valencia. In fact, it was his eight-year-old daughters, Salma Jovita and Julia Martina, who were looking for insects or nymphs in a puddle, that observed the presence of anostracan crustaceans. These are small-sized specimens, with a translucent body and bluish dorsal reflections, swimming in a rain puddle.
María Sahuquillo, a biologist and head of the wetlands section of the General Directorate of Natural and Animal Environment of the Generalitat Valenciana, has confirmed that they are Branchipus schaefferi, anostracans from temporary and turbid waters, very characteristic of our arid Mediterranean environments. She emphasized that they are not easy to find. The Biodiversity Data Bank will record the find under the name of Salma, the discoverer of the most urban population of Branchipus schaefferi known to date.