An annotated checklist of the chaetonotidan Gastrotricha from India
Author
Chatterjee, Tapas
Near Hari Mandir Road, Hirapur, Dhanbad 826001, Jharkhand, India.
Author
Todaro, M. Antonio
0000-0002-6353-7281
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via G. Campi 213 / D, I- 41125 Modena, Italy. antonio. todaro @ unimore. it; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 6353 - 7281
antonio.todaro@unimore.it
text
Zootaxa
2021
2021-09-01
5027
3
332
350
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5027.3.2
1175-5326
5449646
FC464127-CED8-4F28-8A50-F8A0BCD08D49
Chaetonotus trianguliformis
Visvesvara 1964
Records from
India
.
MAHARASTRA
: Nagpur –
Visvesvara (1964)
;
GENERAL RECORD
:
Naidu & Rao (2004)
,
Purushothaman (2017)
.
Habitat (as in Indian records).
Freshwater; among aquatic vegetation.
Distribution.
Known only from
India
.
Remarks.
This species was found only once (see below). The description of the cuticular ornamentations of this species is puzzling. According to the author, the simple spines possessed by this species originate from a triangular base that “…
at higher dry objective appear as scales but when examined under oil, scales were not discernible
”. The author concludes that spines originate from a triangular elevation scales are not present. In our opinion, a new description based on living material is needed to clarify this aspect.
Naidu & Rao (2004)
, following
Schwank’s (1990)
classification, placed this taxon within the subgenus
Euchaetontous.
Kisielewski (1997)
revised Schwank’s systematics and included the species among the
Chaetonotus
taxa of unclear subgeneric position. We agree with Kisielewski’s view until the shape of the scales is described.
Lad & Patil (2016)
documented a gastrotrich species named
Chaetonotus trianguliformis
from the brackish water of
Bhayander
and
Naigaon
estuary (
Thane
,
Mumbai
,
Maharashtra
).
The
species was included in a list of meiofauna taxa, without providing any morphometric details.
Considering
the
type
of habitat in which the gastrotrich specimens were found, and the difficult of identifying a gastrotrich species in absence of a full set of cuticular details, we consider this record to be unreliable
.