Iranian Journal of Animal Biosystematics (IJAB) Vol.8, No.2, 183-189, 2012 ISSN: 1735-434X *Corresponding Author: sari@ut.ac.ir ©2012 FERDOWSI UNIVERSITY OF MASHHAD, IRAN The halophilic fairy shrimp, Phallocryptus spinosa (Milne-Edwards, 1840) (Crustacea: Branchiopoda: Anostraca) from southeast, Iran Vakili, B., Sari, A.* School of Biology and Centre of Excellence in Phylogeny of Living organisms, College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran. Phallocryptus spinosa (Milne-Edwards, 1840) was previously recorded in Iran from a shallow salty pond close to Tabriz, occurring sympatrically with Branchinecta orientalis Sars, 1901; Second and third locations were reported from similar habitats in central area and south of Iran from Bafq and Lar, respectively. Here, a forth population was found during sampling in a pool, about 2000 Km to the south of the first recorded locality. A global distribution map for P. spinosa is presented. The common Lake Urmia branchiopod, Artemia urmiana GÜnther, 1899 was the first described anostracan species from Iran. Later, Brehm (1954) recorded some fairy shrimp species namely Streptocephalus torvicornis Waga, 1842 (Brtek, 1974) and Branchipus schaefferi Fischer, 1834 under B. stagnalis (Belk and Brtek, 1995). Mura and Azari-Takami (2000) reported another three species namely Chirocephalus skorikowi Daday, 1913, Branchinecta orientalis Sars, 1901 and P. spinosa under Branchinella spinosa (Milne-Edwards, 1840); in recent years, Atashbar et al., (2009) also reported P. spinosa from Bafq and Lar. The unpublished data by Agh and Noori (1997), added parthenogenetic Artemia sp. from lagoons around the Lake Urmia to the anostracan fauna of Iran; it was also found in the other localities later on and finally, an exotic species Artemia franciscana was introduced artificially to some localities in Iran (Abatzopoulus et al., 2006). Milne-Edwards (1840) described P. spinosa as Branchipus spinosus, then Simon (1886) changed the name into Branchinecta spinosa but Daday (1910) transferred it to Branchinella spinosa and several authors like Gauthier (1933), Linder (1941), Margalef (1953), Cottarelli and Mura (1974), Saadi (1983), Alonso (1985), Mura (1985), Mura and Hadjistephanou (1987), Thiéry (1987), Mura and Del Cado (1993), Vekhoff (1993), Brtek and Thiéry (1995), Alonso (1996), Thiéry (1996), Brendonck and Riddoch (1997), Thiéry and Puff (1998), Hamer (1999), Mura (1999) Mura et al. (1999), Abatzopoulos et al. (1999) Mura and Azari-Takami (2000), Mura (2001), Moscatello et al. (2002), Thiéry and Puente (2002), Ben-Naceur et al. (2009) and Turki and Turki (2010) have used recent name for about one century. Pesta (1921) used it under Branchinella media and Rogers (2003) reported Branchinema aculeata Wolf as undescribed types deposited at Zoological Museum of Berlin (Forro and Brtek 1984). Rogers (2003 and 2006) revised the genus Phallocryptus of the thamnocephalidae and categorized the case in this genus. Subsequent to a sampling from a shallow, salty and temporary pool with a muddy bed and clear water in the vicinity of a solar saltwork in Chabahar, South East Iran (25º16’ N, 60º37’ E), Phallocryptus spinosa (Milne-Edwards, 1840) was found in the forth locality in Iran. Several male and