Current knowledge on Mexican tardigrades with a description of Milnesium cassandrae sp. nov. (Eutardigrada: Milnesiidae) and discussion on the taxonomic value of dorsal pseudoplates in the genus Milnesium Doyère, 1840
Author
Moreno, Antonio
Author
Roszkowska, Milena
Author
García, Mario Alberto
Author
Flores, José Juan
Author
Kaczmarek, Łukasz
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-11-04
4691
5
501
524
journal article
24986
10.11646/zootaxa.4691.5.5
864e2b8d-c2da-4a20-9fbf-02bcb20be24a
1175-5326
3527562
0684AE18-0510-4F7B-B75D-AE5177FBF2A2
Milnesium barbadosense
Meyer & Hinton, 2012
Terra typica:
Barbados Island
(Central America)
Material examined:
Eleven specimens: Cueva El Infierno (
25°18′30.95′′N
,
100°12′37.85′′W
,
ca.
1522 m
asl), La Camotera, Santiago,
Nuevo Leon
,
Mexico
. Moss on pine (
Pinus
sp.), coll. Jose Juan Flores Maldonado, 6
August 2014. One specimen: Mesa del Oso (
25°16′17.77′′N
,
100°13′41.86′′W
,
ca.
2181 m
asl), Vista Hermosa, Santiago,
Nuevo Leon
,
Mexico
. Moss from pine (
Pinus
sp.), coll. Jose Juan Flores Maldonado,
6 August 2014
.
Comments:
Typical
Mil. barbadosense
was reported from the island country of
Barbados
(
Meyer & Hinton, 2012
), but there are also records of
Mil.
cf.
barbadosense
from Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta,
Colombia
(
Londoño
et al
. 2015
). All Mexican and Colombian specimens have the claw configuration [3
-
3]
-
[3
-
3].
Meyer & Hinton (2012)
described variability in the presence of spurs on secondary branches of claws on specimens from
Barbados
. It is possible that the hatchling and juvenile specimens of this species have different number of spurs in comparison with adults. Such a phenomenon has been described in
Mil. variefidum
Morek, Gąsiorek, Stec, Blagden, & Michalczyk, 2016 (
Morek
et al
. 2016
),
Mil. tar.
tardigradum
(
Morek
et al
. 2018
)
and
Mil. cassandrae
sp. nov.
(present study).