Branchipus schaefferi Fischer von Waldheim, 1834

Chergui, Isslam, Satour, Abdellatif, Bouzid, Abdelhakim, Koulali, Khaled & Samraoui, Boudjéma, 2023, Mapping the Geographic Distribution of Large Branchiopods in Algeria and a checklist update, Zootaxa 5336 (3), pp. 328-348 : 336

Branchipus schaefferi Fischer von Waldheim, 1834

Records in this study. Illizi Quarry, Unnamed pond south of Illizi (Tassili N’Ajjer), Dayet Lihodi, and Jemot.

Previous records in the Algerian Sahara. B. schaefferi was recorded in different locations around Biskra ( Gurney 1909), Dayet Tilremt and Biskra ( Daday 1910), Tassili N’Ajjer ( Daday 1911; Gauthier 1928b; Thiéry & Rogers 2022), Oued Mzab ( Gauthier 1928a), Ahaggar ( Gauthier 1930), and Mouydir ( Gauthier 1933).

Previous records in the Hauts Plateaux and coastal area. The species was recorded at Oum Ali, El-Thenia ( Daday 1910), Mécheria, El Bayadh, between El Bayadh and Aflou, and between Laghouat and Djelfa ( Gauthier 1928b), Saïda ( Gauthier 1934b) Sidi Makhlouf ( Beladjal et al. 1995a, b), and Jemot ( Ouahioune Rais 2019; Beladjal & Amarouayache 2023).

Comments. B. schaefferi is widespread and scattered in the different regions of Algeria. Similarly, the species is widespread in Tunisia ( Marrone et al. 2016) and Morocco, where Thiéry (1987) describes it as eurytopic, indicating its ability to thrive in a variety of ecological conditions. Therefore, it is not surprising that Lukić et al. (2019) demonstrated the presence of four highly divergent evolutionary clades within B. schaefferi .