HALECHINISCIDAE Thulin, 1928

Fontoura, Paulo, Bartels, Paul J., Jørgensen, Aslak, Kristensen, Reinhardt Møbjerg & Hansen, Jesper Guldberg, 2017, A dichotomous key to the genera of the Marine Heterotardigrades (Tardigrada), Zootaxa 4294 (1), pp. 1-45 : 26-27

1.4 HALECHINISCIDAE Thulin, 1928 (emended by Fujimoto et al. 2016)

Arthrotardigrades without sclerotized dorsal segmental plates. The complete set of cephalic appendages usually consist of unpaired median cirrus, three pairs of cirri and two pairs of clavae, buccal clavae may be

16. A spermatheca according Grimaldi de Zio & D’Addabbo Gallo 1975.

17. Three very large droplet-shaped apophyses flank the buccal tube anterior to the pharyngeal bulb.

indistinguishable or consist of fused secondary and tertiary clavae. Unmodified papillate sensory organs on leg IV. Adult legs terminate in either four digits with claws or four suction pads with or without claws. Peduncles present only in external digits, or as tarsal cuticular bars or absent. Single-pointed, crescent shaped claws may bear dorsal spurs and/or minute calcars. Rosette-like female gonopore and paired seminal receptacles.

Selected literature for further information: Grimaldi de Zio et al. (1990a), Jørgensen & Kristensen (2001). An early key to the Halechiniscidae can be found in Renaud-Mornant (1984).