Marine Tardigrada from the Mexican Caribbean with the description of Styraconyx robertoi sp. nov. (Arthrotardigrada: Styraconyxidae)
Author
Pérez-Pech, Wilbert Andrés
Author
Jesús-Navarrate, Alberto De
Author
Demilio, Erica
Author
Anguas-Escalante, Abril
Author
Hansen, Jesper Guldberg
text
Zootaxa
2020
2020-02-10
4731
4
492
508
journal article
24097
10.11646/zootaxa.4731.4.3
7b208096-3c50-4855-98c8-adbf0bb0902d
1175-5326
3661944
0F693568-B754-4594-BBCB-9B396EBA978B
Anisonyches
sp.
1 specimen
(
ML
: 1 indeterminable gender)
Remarks:
The single specimen possesses primary and secondary clavae, median cirrus, eyes, and accessory hooks only on the internal claws. It belongs to the group of
Anisonyches
species that possess primary clavae (
A. diakidius
Pollock, 1975
;
A. mauritianus
Grimaldi de Zio, D’Addabbo Gallo, Morone De Lucia & D’Addabbo, 1987
;
A. eleutherensis
Bartels, Fontoura & Nelson, 2018
). Yet, the elongated dome shape of the primary clavae is unique among all described
Anisonyches
. In addition, the scapus of the internal and external cirri is short, bulbous and nearly spherical. The claws are of the
mauritianus
-
type
with basal spurs narrowly diverging from each other. Of the four claws on legs I–III, the outermost internal claw is the longest and the innermost external claw is the shortest, being less than half the length of the internal claws. These characters indicate that the specimen represents an undescribed species but the presence or absence of leg sense organs cannot be determined with certainty. Consequently, a formal description awaits the finding of further specimens.