Bull Mar Sci. 93(3):863–878. 2017 https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2017.1012 863 Bulletin of Marine Science © 2017 Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science of the University of Miami A new Speleophria (Copepoda, Misophrioida) from an anchialine cave of the Yucatán Peninsula with comments on the biogeography of the genus Eduardo Suárez-Morales 1 * Adrián Cervantes-Martínez 2 Martha Angélica Gutiérrez-Aguirre 2 Thomas M Ilife 3 ABSTRACT.—Misophrioid copepods are hyperbenthic or anchialine forms whose known distributional patterns appear to have a Tethyan origin and subsequent vicariant processes. A new misophrioid copepod, Speleophria germanyanezi n. sp., collected from an anchialine cave in Cozumel Island, Yucatán Peninsula (YP), is described based on male and female specimens. Tis is the second report describing a misophrioid copepod species from the Yucatán Peninsula, harboring a remarkably diverse anchialine crustacean fauna. Te new species is the sixth of this anchialine genus. It difers from its congeners by a combination of characters including: the armature of leg 4 exopod, 21-segmented female antennule, 24-segmented male antennule, both with moderate proximal expansion, the male with the terminal antennulary segments distinctively elongate. Te ffth leg distal segment is armed with 3 elements in the female, 4 in the male. Te female genital double-somite is furnished with long, slender spinules. Te other members of Speleophria are distributed in Europe (Croatia, Spain), Bermuda, and Australia. Relationships among species of Speleophria have revealed amphiatlantic pairs of sister taxa. Te new species has little afnity with its regionally closest congener from Bermuda; it appears to be most closely related to the Croatian S. mestrovi and could be its western Atlantic counterpart. Te diferent misophrioid fauna between the YP and Cozumel Island and the more recent emergence of Cozumel with respect to that of the YP plate suggests either an ancestral Tethyan-related independent colonization or a relatively recent local dispersal through deep-sea crevicular habitats before emergence of these land masses. Misophrioid copepods include deep-sea hyperbenthic, a bathypelagic, and many anchialine forms that have been reported from diferent geographic regions (Boxshall and Roe 1980, Boxshall 1983, 1987, Boxshall and Ilife 1986, 1990, Huys 1988, Jaume and Boxshall 1995, 1996a,b, 1997, 1998, Boxshall and Jaume 2000, Jaume et al. 2001, Boxshall et al. 2014), including the Yucatán Peninsula (YP) (Boxshall et al. 2014). 1 El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) Unidad Chetumal, Av. Centenario Km 5.5, Chetumal, Quintana Roo 77014, Mexico. 2 Universidad de Quintana Roo (UQROO), Unidad Cozumel, Av. Andrés Quintana Roo s/n, Cozumel, Quintana Roo 77600, Mexico. 3 Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Galveston Texas, Texas 75553-1675. * Corresponding author email: <esuarez@ecosur.mx>. Section Editor: Stephen D Cairns Date Submitted: 10 February, 2017. Date Accepted: 13 March, 2017. Available Online: 31 March, 2017. new taxa paper