Chaetonotus laterospinosus Visvesvara, 1964

Chatterjee, Tapas & Todaro, M. Antonio, 2021, An annotated checklist of the chaetonotidan Gastrotricha from India, Zootaxa 5027 (3), pp. 332-350 : 339

Chaetonotus laterospinosus Visvesvara, 1964

Records from India. MAHARASTRA: Nagpur— Visvesvara (1964); GENERAL RECORD: Naidu & Rao (2004), Purushothaman (2017).

Habitat (as in Indian records). Fresh water; among aquatic vegetation.

Distribution. Known only from India.

Remarks. This species has been found only once; according to the discoverer Visvesvara (1964), its uniqueness consists in having the spines confined only to the lateral margins of the body while the dorsal and ventral sides are naked. It is unknown whether the lateral spines originate from a basal scale or not. A redescription of the species on additional material is needed to confirm or disprove its true identity. Naidu & Rao (2004) affiliated the species to the subgenus Euchaetontous Schwank, which currently is considered invalid. Kisielewki (1997) included this taxon among the Chaetonotus species of unclear subgeneric position. We support this view, until a new full detailed description is provided.