New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Two new species of Tetranchyroderma (Gastrotricha, Macrodasyida) from
a sandy beach in southeastern Australia
Warwick Nicholas
Division of Botany and Zoology
Australian National University
Canberra 0200
ACT, Australia
email: warwick@webone.com.au
M. Antonio Todaro
Departimento di Biologia Animale
Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Via Campi, 213/d
I-41100 Modena, Italy
Abstract Two new species of Tetranchyroderma are
described from a sandy beach in southeastern Australia. Both species belong
to the subgroup of the genus in which the dorsal surface of the body is covered
with pentancres and in which head sensorial organs (tentacles and/or pestle
organs) are absent. Tetranchyroderma
pentaspersus sp. nov. is small, 178–244 µm long, and distinguished
by possessing exceptionally large pentancres, c. 30 rows, with the central tine
c. 15 µm long on the trunk, though shorter on the head; lateral tines c.
60% as long. The adhesive apparatus consists of four pairs of anterior adhesive
tubules (TbA), nine pairs of ventro-lateral tubules (TbL), and eight posterior
tubules (TbP), with two of the latter at the end of each caudal pedicle and four
very small in between the caudal pedicles; dorsal and ventral tubules and “cirrata” are
absent. Tetranchyroderma australiense sp. nov. is larger, 330–390 µm
long, possesses c. 70 rows of smaller pentancres, with all five tines of equal
length. The adhesive apparatus consists of four pairs of TbA, eleven pairs of
TbL, one pair of dorsal adhesive tubules (TbD), and four TbP, the latter equally
distributed at the end of two caudal pedicles; ventral tubules and cirrata are
absent. Possible synonymy between the new species and Tetranchyroderma sp.
7 of Valbonesi & Luporini (1988) from Somalia is discussed.
Keywords Australia; Gastrotricha; Macrodasyida; Tetranchyroderma;
taxonomy; meiofauna; sandy beach; SEM
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2006, Vol. 40:
249–258
0028–8330/06/4002–0249 © The Royal Society
of New Zealand 2006
M05068; Online publication date 10 April 2006. Received 26 September
2005, accepted 15 December 2005
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