Echiniscus merokensis Richters, 1904b, 2017

Kaczmarek, Łukasz, 2017, Annotated zoogeography of non-marine Tardigrada. Part IV: Africa, Zootaxa 4284 (1), pp. 1-74 : 13-14

25. Echiniscus merokensis Richters, 1904b sensu lato [T]

Echiniscus merokensis Richt ( Marcus 1928)

Terra typica : Norway (Europe)

?Africa:

• 23°30′N, 12°00′E: Undefined locality, N Africa. Marcus (1928), Rahm (1928)

Algeria:

• 36°53′N, 07°39′E; 800 m asl: Annaba Province, Massif of Eldough [Edough Mountains]. Binda & Pilato (1987)

• 36°40′N, 04°36′E; 1,400 m asl: Tizi Ouzou Province, Akfadou Forest. Binda & Pilato (1987)

• 36°38′N, 05°45′E; 1,200 m asl: Jijel Province, M’Sid-Ech-Cheta (Texenna Pass). Binda & Pilato (1987)

Record numbers.?Africa: 1, Algeria: 3; total 4.

Remarks. The morphological descriptions of E. merokensis in various reports exhibit a great deal of variation, suggestive of a species complex (see: Ramazzotti & Maucci 1983). However, most of the records (including the type locality) are Holarctic ( McInnes 1994), which implies the records from other regions need confirmation.