STYGARCTIDAE Schulz, 1951

Fontoura, Paulo, Bartels, Paul J., Jørgensen, Aslak, Kristensen, Reinhardt Møbjerg & Hansen, Jesper Guldberg, 2017, A dichotomous key to the genera of the Marine Heterotardigrades (Tardigrada), Zootaxa 4294 (1), pp. 1-45 : 32

1.7 STYGARCTIDAE Schulz, 1951 (emended by Hansen et al. 2012)

Arthrotardigrada with dorsal cuticle forming five dorsal plates (one cephalic plate; three body plates – segmental plates I, II and III – and one caudal plate – segmental plate IV). Dorsal plates sometimes absent. Intersegmental dorsal plates and ventral plates may be present. Head subdivided into lobes; complete set of cephalic cirri and two pairs of clavae. Stylet supports always absent. Legs non-digitate with four, three or two claws. Claws with or without dorsal spurs or long dorsal filaments34; claws attached with dorsal basal membrane. Leg sense organs present only on the fourth pair of legs, as bulb-shaped papillae. Seminal receptacles formed as cuticular pouches with short straight ducts or with long sinuous ducts close to the female gonopore.

Selected literature for further information: A key to the Stygarctidae can be found in Morone De Lucia et al. (1984).