New data on freshwater psammic Gastrotricha from Brazil

By

Araujo, Thiago Quintão
Lourenço, Anete
Balsamo, Maria
Garraffoni, André Rinaldo Senna

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2010

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

60

Pages

1-12

Subjects

Biodiversity , Chaetonotida , freshwater Gastrotricha , Macrodasyida , meiofauna

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.60.495

 

Abstract

Current knowledge of freshwater gastrotrich fauna from Brazil is underestimated as only two studies are available. The present communication is a taxonomic account of the first-ever survey of freshwater Gastrotricha in Minas Gerais State. Samplings were carried out yielding six species of three Chaetonotidae genera: Aspidiophorus cf. pleustonicus, Ichthydium cf. chaetiferum, Chaetonotus acanthocephalus, C. heideri, C. cf. succinctus, Chaetonotus sp., and also an undescribed species belonging to the genus Redudasys (incertae sedis): this is the first finding of specimens of Redudasys outside of original type locality. These preliminary observations suggest that the knowledge of the biodiversity of Gastrotricha in the Minas Gerais State, as well as in the whole Brazil, will certainly increase as further investigations are undertaken, and that freshwater Macrodasyida may be more common than previously thought.