Morphology and morphometry of morphotypes in the population of Artemia franciscana (Kellogg, 1906) from salterns of the southeastern coast of India

• Published in: Heliyon 2024-05, Vol.10 (9), p.e29796-e29796, Article e29796
• Main Authors: Thirunavukkarasu, Subramani, Murugan, Gopal, Hwang, Jiang-Shiou, Munuswamy, Natesan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Artemia; Brine shrimp; India; Invasive species; Live feed
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29796

We document the morphology, morphometric variations among the morphotypes of the brine shrimp, Artemia franciscana. From the samples collected at four different locations in South India, Tamil Nadu viz. Kelambakkam, Vedaranyam, Tuticorin and Nagarcoil we identified six morphotypes: M1, M3, M4 in males and F1, F2, F3 in females. The Scanning electron micrographs of male morphotypes show distinct variation in the basal width, shape and number of cuticular cones on the second antennae. Similarly, the female morphotypes show various shape and sizes of the ovisac with or without spines. However, the cyst surface topography is smooth without any specific variation/ornamentation in all three female morphotypes. Multivariate analysis of eighteen morphological traits measured in males and fifteen in females to elucidate the intraspecific variations among morphotypes indicate significant dissimilarity between males and females. Furthermore, relative length measurements showed distinct morphometric variation of traits between the morphotypes encountered at different sampling sites. •Confirm the occurrence of six different morphotypes of Artemia franciscana.•Documented the variation in the second antennae in males and the shape of the ovisac in females.•Morphometric discriminations are authenticated by multivariate analysis (MVA).•Each morphotype was distinguished by its own morphometric characteristics.