Echiniscus africanus Murray, 1907

Gasiorek, Piotr & Voncina, Katarzyna, 2019, New Echiniscidae (Heterotardigrada) from Amber Mountain (Northern Madagascar), Evolutionary Systematics 3 (1), pp. 29-39 : 29

Echiniscus africanus Murray, 1907 Fig. 1

Material examined.

One juvenile individual. Terra typica: South Africa.

Synthetic description.

Body yellow and plump, 140 μm long. Cephalic appendages lengths: cirrus internus 12.7, cephalic papilla (secondary clava) 5.8, cirrus externus 14.7, primary clava 4.1, cirrus A 30.3. Trunk appendage formula C-Cd-D-Dd-Dcd-E, most spines of similar lengths (16.1-19.0), but spines Cd and Dcd much shorter (7.5-9.4), and two additional spicules (2.5-3.1) present at the posterior edge of the scapular plate (29.6). The dorsal plate sculpture of the mixed type (sensu Gąsiorek et al. 2019), with large pores surrounded by polygonal edges on the scapular and caudal plates, and endocuticular pillars visible as densely arranged dark dots on the remaining plates, sometimes covered by thick epicuticular ornamentation (Fig. 1).

Leg appendages and claw lengths: spine on the first leg pair 2.6, papilla on the fourth leg pair 3.9, claws I–IV 7.5-9.3. Serrated fringe on the fourth leg pair consisting of nine teeth.

Distribution.

This elusive species has been reported several times only from Southern and Eastern Africa since its description over a century ago ( McInnes et al. 2017, Gąsiorek and Kristensen 2018). The record from Vietnam ( Węglarska 1962) suggests either disjunctive range or misidentification with E. semifoveolatus Ito, 1993, which, however, is not properly delimited from the former species ( Qiao et al. 2013).

Remarks.

The specimen lacks lateral spines B and centrodorsal (mediodorsal) spines Ccd, which are characteristic for this species ( Murray 1907, 1913). However, both positions are highly instable in terms of the presence/absence of appendages, which was demonstrated for E. lapponicus Thulin, 1911 with similar appendage configuration ( Dastych 1980).