Macrobiotus terminalis Bertolani & Rebecchi 1993

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 : 24

Macrobiotus terminalis Bertolani & Rebecchi 1993

A total of 1,393 specimens and 207 eggs (only 9 out of 40 sampling sites without eggs: 1, 3, 7, 8, 11, 19, 20, 24, and 59, which have to be referred to as Macrobiotus cf. terminalis , although the animal’s morphology was exactly the same in all specimens studied; Table 3) were identified as Macrobiotus terminalis , from all habitats examined. No anterior band of teeth, but evident posterior band of teeth and transverse crest system (long dorsal crest and short ventral crest). Double-claws were hufelandi- type, the fourth pair of legs with bigger lunules with large teeth, also present but smaller in lunules in the other legs. Two types of eggs ascribed to Macrobiotus terminalis were observed. Egg morphology varied accordingly to density and size of pores on the egg surface between processes (inverted calyx shapes). One of these morphologies is the type 3 described by Bertolani & Rebecchi (1993), and had similar sized pores uniformly and not densely distributed. The other morphology correspond with type 4 (referred as Macrobiotus cf. terminalis by authors (Bertolani & Rebecchi 1993)), with pores more densely distributed and with different sizes between the processes. The body size range was 253 to 1540 μm, mean 689 μm (SD 179). This species has been cited only for Europe, including Spain ( Guil, 2002). Macrobiotus terminalis was collected at 40 sampling points (Table 3).