Italian marine gastrotricha: V. Four new and one redescribed species of macrodasyida in the dactylopodolidae and thaumastodermatidae

Abstract

Four species new to science are described and figured from the Italian coastline of the Mediterranean Sea and its adjacent waters: the Mediterranean Dactylopodola mesotyphle n. sp. in the family Dactylopodolidae, a neotenous sibling species of the more geographically ubiquitous D. typhle Remane, 1927, is differentiated from the latter both morphologically and biogeographically. Of three species of Tetranchyroderma: T. aphenothigmum n. sp., T. psilotopum n. sp., and T. sympborochetum n. sp. in the family Thaumastodermatidae, the first and third have a complete dorsal covering of tetrancres, while the second has an incomplete covering of pentancres. The species Dendrodasys affinis Wilke, 1954 in the family Dactylopodolidae is redescribed, and figured for the first time, from specimens collected in littoral and shallow sublit-toral sediments near Naples. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.