Meet our team

Our team has been extensively trained in both the field collection and processing of benthic invertebrate samples.

Danuta Zaranko

principal

Danuta Zaranko, has more than 35 years of experience in benthic ecology and has processed over 30,000 benthic samples from across North and South America.

Catherine onodera

Senior Taxonomist

John Thuerig

Lab manager

Winston Carl lee

Intermediate taxonomist

New and interesting finds by Zeas incorporated

Kirmaushenkreena zarankoea

 A newly discovered larva o f Baetidae (Insecta, Ephemeroptera) is described from Nunavut, Canada as Kirmaushenkreena zarankoae, n. gen. and n. sp. The new taxon has a unique combination of generic characteristics, including unusual claw armature that is diagnostic. Closest relatives of the new genus may possibly be in the lndobaetis complex of genera. The absence of a villopore sets the new species apart from other far northern North American baetine species, and other differences and convergent similarities such as claw setation and gill dimensions among that fauna are discussed.

mccafferty2011-kirmaushenkreena.pdf
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Potamopyrgus antipodarum

In 1991, the hydrobiid snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray 1843), native to New Zealand, was found 1 km offshore Wilson, New York, in Lake Ontario. This is the first known occurrence of the snail in eastern North America. Densities of P. antipodarum have increased since its discovery, and the snail is expected to spread quickly throughout the Great Lakes area. The biofouling potential of P. antipodarum is probably low; however, its most serious threat may be resource competition with native molluscs. This species was probably introduced in ballast water from transoceanic vessels, thus increasing the list of nonindigenous aquatic organisms introduced into the Great Lakes since the 1800s to 140 different organisms. The risk of other species invasions into the Great Lakes is still possible, despite the now mandatory ballast water regulations.
Zaranko, D & Farara, D & Thompson, F. (2011). Another exotic mollusc in the Laurentian Great Lakes: The New Zealand native Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Gray 1843) (Gastropoda, Hydrobiidae). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. 54. 809-814. 10.1139/f96-343.

Dero flabelliger

ZEAS Incorporated discovered several Dero flabelliger in samples collected from Lake St. Francis on the St. Lawrence Seaway around Cornwall Ontario. Previously only recorded from; Florida, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina and New England states.  Species verification was confirmed by worm expert Mark J. Wetzel of the Illinois Natural History Survey Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.

Kloosia

Kloosia has been found through out Ontario by ZEAS Incorporated. Previously Kloosia had only been reported in the South-east North America and Missouri.  Kloosia larvae are found in sandy sediment not only of relatively  clean, fast running waters with sandy substrata, but in the most unstable benthic conditions of large rivers such as the Rhine.

Dentatella coxalis

Dentatella danutae -Holotype : Larva, Canada, Quebec, Riviere-du- Loup, Latitude 47 43.74 North, Longitude 69 31.51" West, 12-0ctober-1999, deposited in the Purdue Entomological Research Collection (PERC), West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. Paratypes : one larva, Canada, Quebec, Riviere-du-Loup, Latitude 47 49.32, Longitude 69 31.17, 10-0ctober-1999 (PERC); one larva, same data and deposition as previous, except longitude 69 31.33. Other material: two larvae (not examined), from the Riviere-du-Loup, deposited in personal collection of D. Zaranko (Nobleton, Ontario).
-Etymology -The species is named in honor of Danuta Zaranko.
mccafferty2000p157-161.pdf
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Renamed Dentatella coxalis in 2003, presently genus in question Dentatella may belong to Eurylophella

McCafferty, W.P., and L. M. Jacobus (2003). Phylogenetics and the reconfirmation of Dentatella Allen (Ephemeroptera: Ephemerellidae) Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, vol. 104, no. 3  786-788 

Gammarocanthus ?aestuariorum

ZEAS Incorporated discovered multiple Gammarocanthus in samples collected from the Baker Lake area in Nunavut.  Species verification was performed by Risto Vainola of the University of Helsinki and Finnish Museum of Natural History.  Previously they had only been reported in Canadian freshwater at Greiner Lake, NWT and Heart Lake, Quebec.

Johnson, Lionel. (2011). The relict fauna of Greiner Lake, Victoria Island, N.W.T., Canada. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada. 19. 1105-1120. 10.1139/f62-073.
dadswell-distributionecologyandpostglacialdispersal.pdf
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