Macrobiotus madegassus Maucci, 1993

Pilato, Giovanni & Lisi, Oscar, 2009, Tardigrades of the Seychelles Islands, with the description of three new species, Zootaxa 2124, pp. 1-20 : 2-3

Macrobiotus madegassus Maucci, 1993

Material examined: Praslin, Mt. Cabris, 11 specimens and 5 eggs, some of which with fully developed embryo, in a sample of mosses from soil; North Island, 2 specimens and 2 eggs in a sample of leaf-litter of Calophyllum sp.

Macrobiotus madegassus

This is the second record of the species, therefore we think it opportune to add some details to the description of Maucci (1993). We compared our specimens with one paratype kindly loaned by the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Verona, and we noted that, different from the description of Maucci, the cuticle has circular and elliptical pores. The buccal tube is long and narrow, the dorsal transverse ridges of the buccal armature are joined forming a thin, unique arc; the stylet supports are inserted on the buccal tube far away from the pharyngeal bulb (pt = about 71). The pharyngeal apophyses are very developed; the microplacoid small. The dimensions of some structures are provided in Table 1 . The eggs, of hufelandi type have 30–34 processes around the circumference and 125–145 in the hemisphere. The processes are up to 5.5 µm high with a basal diameter 5.3–6 µm long; diameter of the terminal disc up to 3.3 µm. The egg shell, between the processes, has a dense reticular design with very small meshes ( Maucci (1993) used the expression “with regular pores”); the meshes around the processes are not larger than the others and therefore, as also Maucci (1993) specified, the bases of the processes do not have a ring of traits particularly evident.

Macrobiotus madegassus is new for the Seychelles Islands.

Tables

TABLE 1. Measurements (in μm) of some structures of two specimens of Macrobiotus madegassus (one from North Island and a paratype from Madagascar) of about the same body length.

	North Island	paratype (Madagascar)
Body length	370	340
Buccal tube length	34.8	31.7
Buccal tube external width	4.1	3.3
pt	11.8	10.4
Stylet supports pt	71.3	70.6
First macroplacoid	8.9	7.8
pt	25.6	24.6
Second macroplacoid	5.0	4.0
pt	14.4	12.6
Microplacoid	1.8	2.1
pt	5.2	6.6
Internal claw I	9.0	8.8
pt	25.9	27.9
External claw I	9.5	9.3
pt	27.3	29.3
Internal claw II, III	9.8	9.0
pt	28.2	28.4
External claw II, III	10.2	9.4
pt	29.3	29.7
Anterior claw IV	10.9	10.4
pt	31.3	32.8
Posterior claw IV	11.1	10.6
pt	31.9	33.4