Sub-Recent Sexual Populations of Limnocythere inopinata Recorded for the First Time from > 3500 m Altitude on the Tibetan Plateau

The central and northwestern Tibetan Plateau region, also called "Qiangtang Plateau" (30°27'25"-35°39'13" N, 83°41'14"-95°10'46" E), is the highest and largest arcticalpine area of the Earth covering approximately 600,000 km~2 with altitude ranging from 4600 to 5100 m a.s.l. (Song et al., 2012, Fig. 1). Ostracod species of Limnocythere inopinata (Baird, 1843) is known from the Pleistocene to the Recent from Europe and Asia (Diebel and Pietrzeniuk, 1975; Huang, 1984). It is a common Holarctic species with broad ecological tolerances. It is widely distributed in different water body types such as ponds, swamps, ditches, rivers and lakes (Meisch, 2000). It is one of the most abundant species in water bodies of central Asia.