Milnesium minutum and Milnesium sandrae, two new species of Milnesiidae (Tardigrada, Eutardigrada, Apochela)

By

Pilato, Giovanni
Lisi, Oscar

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2016

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

580

Pages

1-12

Subjects

Hawaiian Archipelago , Milnesiidae , new species , Sicily , Tardigrada

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.580.6603

 

Abstract

Two new species of Milnesium are described, Milnesium minutum sp. n. from Sicily and Milnesium sandrae sp. n. from the Hawaiian Archipelago. The body size of Milnesium minutum is the smallest of the known species of the genus. The stylet supports are inserted on the buccal tube at 63–66% of its length and the claws have a [3-3]-[3-3] configuration. Milnesium sandrae has stylet supports inserted on the buccal tube at 58–60.5% of its length, a [3-3]-[3-3] claw configuration, and the percent ratio between the secondary claw and primary claw length on legs I–III (78.6%–85.5%) clearly higher than on legs IV (70.5%–71.4%). With the description of these two new species, the number of species in the genus is increased to 31.