Marine Tardigrades Research Articles

On Some British Marine Tardigrada, Including two New Species of Batillipes

INTRODUCTIONUntil recently only two marine members of the phylum Tardigrada were known to occur in Britain. Echiniscoides sigismundi (Schultze), was found associated with mussels (Green, 1950) and intertidal barnacles (Crisp & Hobart, 1954). The interstitial species, Batillipes mirus Richters, was located at beaches in North Wales (Boaden, 1963) and Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland (Boaden, 1966).Interstitial tardigrades have been reported from several localities around the North Sea. The fauna of the German coast is particularly well studied; Schultze, 1867; Richters, 1908, 1909; Schulz, 1935, 1951, 1953; Grell, 1937; Remane, 1940; Freidrich, 1963; Riemann, 1966a, b; Schmidt, 1969. This German fauna includes three species of Batillipes and single representatives of five other genera. In addition, E. sigismundi and B. mirus have been found in Norway (Tambs-Lyche, 1939–40). Along the French coast of the English Channel, eight species from six genera are reported. While most studies originated at RoscofT, including Cuénot, 1892; Cantacuzène, 1951; Guèrin, 1960; Swedmark, 1951, 1955, 1956a; Swedmark & Teissier, 1967; Thulin, 1942, two species of Batillipes have been located elsewhere on the northern coast of France (Renaud-Debyser & Salvat, 1963).In recent surveys of beaches in Britain, additional tardigrades have been located. Gray & Rieger (1971) reported their occurrence at several beaches on the north-east coast of Yorkshire, especially at Stoupe Beck, Robin Hood's Bay and Filey Beach near Scar-borough. Also, A. D. Mclntyre has found them in his collections at Firemore Bay in Loch Ewe on the west coast of Scotland. This paper describes specimens generously provided from these two studies.

Ontogenetic Variation of Taxonomic Characters of Two Marine Tardigrades with the Description of Batillipes bullacaudatus n. sp.

Ontogenetic Variation of Taxonomic Characters of Two Marine Tardigrades with the Description of Batillipes bullacaudatus n. sp.

Tardigrada from North America

The distribution of Tardigrades is worldwide. All of them are hygrophilous, but some of them are of necessity restricted to life in the water and are distinguished as Marine or Fresh Water Tardigrades. These Waterbears are found in all parts of the globe, in the Arctic as well as in the Antarctic regions, among the mosses and lichens collected at a height of 6,000 m., and among water plants. The general distribution of the animalcules is caused by the Anabiosis and the wind which carries these minute forms of animal life into every nook of our planet. Tropical countries do not seem favorable (as far as number of individuals and species are concerned) to productive Faunas of Tardigrades. The largest number of these animalcules found in a bed of dried moss was 22,000 per gm.