Echiniscus spiniger Richters, 1904c

Kaczmarek, Łukasz, Michalczyk, Łukasz & Mcinnes, Sandra J., 2015, Annotated zoogeography of non-marine Tardigrada. Part II: South America, Zootaxa 3923 (1), pp. 1-107 : 21

45. Echiniscus spiniger Richters, 1904c sensu lato [T]

Echiniscus spiniger Richters. ( Heinis 1914)

Echiniscus (Echiniscus) spiniger Richt., 1904 (de Barros 1942a)

E. (E.) spiniger Richters, 1904 (du Bois-Reymond Marcus 1944)

Terra typica: Sweden (Europe)

Brazil:

• 22°44′S, 45°35′W; 1,650 m asl: São Paulo State, Campos do Jordão, mosses or aquatic plants (du Bois-Reymond Marcus 1944) and mosses (de Barros 1942a). de Barros (1942a), du Bois-Reymond Marcus (1944)

• 23°57′S, 46°19′W; 0 m asl: São Paulo State, Santos, mosses. de Barros (1942a)

Colombia:

• 04°29′N, 73°57′W; 2,300 m asl: Cundinamarca Department, near Ubaque, below Páramo Cruz Verde, mosses (Erythrodontrium consanguineum, Tortula sp., Campylopus sp., Sphagnum sp.). Heinis (1914)

Record numbers: Brazil: 2, Colombia: 1; total: 3.

Remarks: This species known from numerous European localities ( terra typica ) and single sites in Asia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, North and South America ( McInnes 1994a). Such a wide geographic distribution suggests a species complex.