A new species of freshwater Chaetonotidae (Gastrotricha, Chaetonotida) from Obodska Cave (Montenegro) based on morphological and molecular characters

Abstract

Gastrotricha is a cosmopolitan phylum of aquatic and semi-aquatic invertebrates that comprises about 820 described species. Current knowledge regarding freshwater gastrotrichs inhabiting caves is extremely poor and there are no extant data regarding Gastrotricha from Montenegro. We describe a new species from Obodska Cave, which is also the first record of a gastrotrich from this region. Due to its unusual habitat and morphological characteristics, this species may be important when considering the evolution and dispersion routes of Chaetonotidae Gosse, 1864 (sensu Leasi & Todaro 2008). We provide morphometric, molecular and phylogenetic data for the new species, together with photomicrographs and drawings.

Collecting eco‐evolutionary data in the dark: Impediments to subterranean research and how to overcome them

“…This impediment (also known as 'Linnean shortfall'; Hortal et al, 2015) is especially problematic in studies focusing on community structure and functioning. It is particularly severe for tropical areas, whose subterranean fauna were largely unknown until very recently (e.g., Alvarenga et al, 2021;Trajano & Bichuette, 2010;Trajano et al, 2016), as well as for certain small-sized animal groups which have been traditionally neglected despite being relatively abundant in subterranean habitats, such as diplurans (Sendra, Antić, et al, 2020;Sendra, Palero, et al, 2020), proturans (Galli et al, 2021), palpigrades (Mammola et al, 2021), nematodes (Du Preez et al, 2017), gastrotrichs (Kolicka et al, 2017), and other meiofaunal lineages (Martínez et al, 2019;Sánchez & Martínez, 2019). The lack of taxonomists for many groups surely hampers the conduction of more concise studies on cave communities in many regions; a situation that is further aggravated by the existence of often high cryptic diversity within most subterranean taxa (Delić et al, 2017;Eme et al, 2018;Esposito et al, 2015;Fišer et al, 2018;Gonzalez et al, 2017;Niemiller et al, 2012).…”

Marine Macrodasyida (Gastrotricha) from Hokkaido, Northern Japan

“…The phylum Gastrotricha currently contains about 850 species of aquatic, microscopic animals (e.g., Todaro et al 2014;Kolicka et al 2017), which are classified into the two orders Chaetonotida and Macrodasyida. The former includes tenpin-shaped, hermaphroditic or parthenogenetic species found in marine, brackish, or freshwater habitats, whereas the latter includes vermiform, hermaphroditic species living interstitially in sand in marine ecosystems (Hummon and Todaro 2010;, with exceptions of two freshwater species (Todaro et al 2012).…”

The curious and neglected soft-bodied meiofauna: Rouphozoa (Gastrotricha and Platyhelminthes)

“…Only a few records mention metazoan parasites such as nematodes or neodermatan flatworms (for details, see Young, 2001 and references therein). It is noteworthy that the last comprehensive review of microturbellarians as parasites and hosts was published over 100 years ago (von Graff, 1903), and less comprehensive modern summaries are available (Jennings, 1971(Jennings, , 1974a(Jennings, , 1977 919 Parthenogenesis, resting eggs, and short life cycles 920 allow gastrotrichs to survive extreme variations in 921 environmental conditions (e.g., droughts, floods) and 922 colonize challenging habitats such as lotic sediments 923 (Ricci & Balsamo, 2000), caves (Vandel, 1964;924 Renaud-Mornant, 1986;Kolicka et al, 2017), high 925 mountain biotopes (Baumann, 1910;Tonolli & 926 Tonolli, 1951;Gadea, 1988), hot springs (De Guerne, 927 1888), and deep crater lakes (Barrois, 1896;R . 928 Schabetsberger, unpublished data).…”