Dipodarctus, Pollock, 1995

Pérez-Pech, Wilbert Andrés, Jesús-Navarrate, Alberto De, Demilio, Erica, Anguas-Escalante, Abril & Hansen, Jesper Guldberg, 2020, Marine Tardigrada from the Mexican Caribbean with the description of Styraconyx robertoi sp. nov. (Arthrotardigrada: Styraconyxidae), Zootaxa 4731 (4), pp. 492-508 : 496

Dipodarctus sp.

1 specimen ( PM: 1 indeterminable gender)

Comparative material: 36 specimens reported as Dipodarctus by Pérez-Pech et al. (2018) (ML: gender determinations not attempted)

Remarks: The single specimen from Puerto Morelos displays a set of characters that are typical of the genus including: the primary clavae much longer than, and ventral to the lateral cirri; innermost digit (digit 1) on legs I–III slightly shorter than the other digits; and digit 3 slightly longer than the other digits. The specimen is distinguished from all described members of the genus by a set of dorsolateral wing-like structures. The nature of these unique structures requires further investigation pending the recovery of more specimens.

The single specimen was determined not to represent the same taxon as those used to establish the generic record of Dipodarctus by Perez-Pech et al. (2018) for Mexico. Re-examination of the latter specimens found that these should be regarded as Halechiniscus cf. perfectus Schulz, 1955 because they correspond to the limited description of that species but digit 3 on leg pairs I–III is slightly longer than the other digits. This digit pattern is characteristic of Dipodarctus as opposed to Halechiniscus , hence the confusion regarding the assignment of the specimens to the former genus by Pérez-Pech et al. (2018). Therefore, only one record for ‘ Dipodarctus sp.’, i.e. the present, should be considered as valid for Mexico.