Macrobiotus echinogenitus Richters 1904

Guil, Noemí, 2008, New records and within-species variability of Iberian tardigrades (Tardigrada), with comments on the species from the Echiniscus blumi-canadensis series, Zootaxa 1757, pp. 1-30 : 20

Macrobiotus echinogenitus Richters 1904

Specimens found showed two types of cuticle: smooth (in MR samples, 1 specimen) or with small pores (in LT samples, 6 specimens), as Ramazzotti and Maucci (1983) described. The specimen from the MR sample was identified without eggs, although adult morphology corresponded with the other 6 specimens (identified with eggs). Buccal armature showed several rows of teeth in the anterior and posterior bands, and a transversal crest system (three ventral and three dorsal). One out of the seven specimens had ocular spots, while five did not have this character, and in one specimen it was not possible to determine absence or presence of ocular spots. Body size ranged from 473 to 770 μm, mean 662 μm (SD 95). Five eggs with common morphology (spherical, with conic or onion bulb-shaped ornamentations and smooth surface) were also examined. This species is considered cosmopolitan ( McInnes 1994). In the Iberian Peninsula, it has been recorded for Spain ( Heinis 1908; Rodríguez Roda 1946) and Portugal ( Da Cunha 1941, 1943, 1944a, 1947b). This is the first time to be recorded for Madrid. Macrobiotus echinogenitus was collected in two sampling points (Table 3).