Italian marine Gastrotricha: II. One new genus and ten new species of Macrodasyida

Abstract

A new genus, Dendropodola, and species, D. transitionalis, are described in the family Dactylopodolidae. Three new species, Cephalodasys hadrosomus, Mesodasys adenotubulatus, and Mesodasys ischiensis, are described in the family Lepidodasyidae. And, six new species, Pseudostomella etrusca, Ptychostomella tyrrhenica, Tetranchyroderma heterotubulatum, Tetranchyroderma hypopsilancrum, Tetranchyroderma pachysomum, and Tetranchyroderma thysanophorum, are described in the family Thaumastodermatidae. All were collected in littoral and shallow sublittoral sediments along the Italian coastline of the Mediterranean Sea and its adjacent waters.

Italian marine Gastrotricha: I. Six new and one redescribed species of Chaetonotida

“…Our investigation thus far has discovered numerous species of both chaetonotids and macrodasyids that are new to the Italian fauna or new to science. The first results of this research are presented in the present paper and those of Balsamo et al (1992), , Todaro et al (1992) and Hummon et al (1993).…”

<strong>A new species of <em>Cephalodasys</em> (Gastrotricha, Macrodasyida) from the Caribbean Sea with a determination key to species of the genus</strong>

“…However, the head of species of Dactylopodola contains almost the entire length of the pharynx, which is never the case in any species of Cephalodasys. Other deviations are noted for C. hadrosomus Tongiorgi, 1993 andC. miniceraus Hummon, 1974, which have a rounded head and a head bearing inconspicuous lateral, ciliated hornlike lobes, respectively.…”

“…The description of the new species of Cephalodasys follows the convention of Hummon et al (1992Hummon et al ( , 1993, whereby the position of most morphological characteristics along the body are given in percentage units (U) of total body length measured from anterior to posterior ends, not including the posterior adhesive tubes.…”

Unusual spermatozoa and reproductive modalities ofXenodasys eknomios(Gastrotricha: Xenodasyidae)

“…a frontal organ) containing sperm and resembling in location and morphology the frontal organ of X. eknomios has been described in Dendrodasys species (Wilke 1954;Schmidt 1974), and a similar structure was reported for a single, unnamed species in the genus Dactylopodola (Ruppert 1991); for a different interpretation of the reproductive system in Dactylopodola see Kieneke et al (2008). No data are available for Dendropodola as the species was described on a single immature specimen (Hummon et al 1993).…”