New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Observations on Gastrotricha from a sandy beach in southeastern Australia,
with a description of Halichaetonotus australis sp. nov. (Gastrotricha,
Chaetonotida)
Warwick Nicholas
Division of Botany and Zoology
Australian National University
Canberra 0200
ACT, Australia
email: warwick@webone.com.au
M. Antonio Todaro
Dipartimento di Biologia Animale
Università di Moderna
via Università 4
I-41100 Moderna, Italy
Abstract Several species of Gastrotricha were found
among samples of nematodes extracted from a sandy ocean beach, South Broulee
beach, in southeastern Australia. One of these Gastrotricha turned out to
be a species new to science which is described as Halichaetonotus australis
sp. nov. in this study. Although the spines of the hydrofoil scales resemble
those of the cosmopolitan H. aculifer, a distinctive feature of the
new species is the presence of three prominent posterior dorsal spines. These
are exaggerations of the keels found on the dorsal overlapping scales that
cover the dorsal surfaces of the head, neck, and trunk. The spines are almost
as long as the rami of the terminal furca. H. australis sp. nov. also
resembles H. marivagus, but differs in lacking both a cephalion and
hypostomion. Freeze drying is introduced as a preparation method for scanning
electron microscopy of Gastrotricha.
Keywords Australia; Gastrotricha; Chaetonotida; Halichaetonotus;
taxonomy; meiofauna; SEM method
M04153; Online publication date 17 June 2005 Received 15 November 2004;
accepted 18 March 2005
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2005, Vol. 39:
973-980
0028-8330/05/3904-0973 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2005
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