Morphological and molecular description of ten new species of a new genus of Parabathynellidae (Bathynellacea, Crustacea) from the Pilbara region, Western Australia

The Pilbara is one of the arid regions in the north of Western Australia that is economically important for its mineral deposits. In the past few decades, many surveys have been conducted on behalf of the mining industry under regulatory requirements. Many new species have been discovered in this region to the point that it has been recognised as a global hotspot for subterranean fauna.

Parabathynellidae are small, subterranean crustaceans widely spread across Australian groundwater and hyporheic ecosystems, including the Pilbara aquifers. In the past three years, 18 new species of this family have been described from the Pilbara, however, many species remain undescribed, including a specious clade with uncertain status. Here, using an integrative approach, we describe 10 new species of a new genus Nicolenella gen. nov., which correspond to the taxon with uncertain status from the Pilbara (N. rodmani sp. nov., N. hueyi sp. nov., N. mittrai sp. nov., N. vanweesae sp. nov., N. nguyenae sp. nov., N. abramsae sp. nov., N. newtonorum sp. nov., N. isabelleana sp. nov., N. floecknerae sp. nov., N. morganae sp. nov.), and we define four new additional putative species through genetic data.

A multigene phylogeny, using COI, 12 S and 18 S genes, including genera from Australia and other countries, helped to place the new genus within the Australian Parabathynellidae, and the Australian fauna into worldwide context.