Abstract

Fresh water tardigrades are an under documented group in the United States. In the 80 years since the first aquatic tardigrade was reported, there have been only 106 records across only 19 states and more than half of the 29 species have been recorded only once. For his master's thesis at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, in 1976–77, Philip Staley extracted 430 aquatic tardigrades and eggs from samples of freshwater alga. Three species were identified: Dactylobiotus dispar, Murrayon pullari and Thulinius augusti of which M. pullari is new to Missouri and the fourth aquatic species in the state. This report adds 25 records of fresh water tardigrades from eight Missouri counties and expands the national records of geographic distribution for aquatic tardigrades by 24%.

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