Orzeliscus belopus subsp. sensu
- Dataset
- The Zoogeography of Marine Tardigrada
- Rank
- SUBSPECIES
- Published in
- Kaczmarek, Łukasz, Bartels, Paul J., Roszkowska, Milena, Nelson, Diane R. (2015): The Zoogeography of Marine Tardigrada. Zootaxa 4037 (1): 1-189, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4037.1.1
Classification
- kingdom
- Animalia
- phylum
- Tardigrada
- class
- Heterotardigrada
- order
- Arthrotardigrada
- family
- Halechiniscidae
- genus
- Orzeliscus
description
Orzeliscus belopus, n. sp. (Du Bois-Reymond Marcus 1952)
discussion
Remarks: This is a widely distributed species in the northern hemisphere with isolated reports in the southern hemisphere. It has been reported from warm tropical waters to cold waters of the temperate zone on the Atlantic coast of Scotland, but it has never been reported from marine caves. It is an intertidal or subtidal species reported from different types of sand and sediments. In our opinion the status of this taxon is similar to H. r. remanei (see remarks for H. r. antillensis and H. r. remanei) and a major revision is needed. For example, McKirdy et al. (1976) reported it as Orzeliscus cf. belopus from the Pacific Ocean on the coast of the Galapagos Islands, and they suggested that the description of this taxon is insufficient and some characters may have been missed by previous authors. The same authors also found other differences between typical specimens and specimens from the Galapagos, but they stated that they were not sufficient to describe a new taxon. Bertolani (1987) and recently Suzuki & Kristensen (2014) reported this species as Orzeliscus cf. belopus (but did not explain why), which suggests that their specimens do not agree fully with the original description or that the original description is not sufficient to do a complete identification. In light of these statements and new findings of cryptic species in marine tardigrades (see e. g. Faurby et al. 2011), we should probably question the present geographic distribution of this species and consider it as a group of species or subspecies.
Name
- Homonyms
- Orzeliscus belopus subsp. sensu