Aquatic tardigrades in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee, U.S.A., with the description of a new species of Thulinius (Tardigrada, Isohypsibiidae)

ROBERTO BERTOLANI; PAUL J. BARTELS; ROBERTO GUIDETTI; MICHELE CESARI; DIANE R. NELSON

doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3764.5.2

Issue: Vol. 3764 No. 5: 13 Feb. 2014

Type: Article

Published: 2014-02-05

DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3764.5.2

Page range: 524–536

Abstract views: 24

PDF downloaded: 2

**Aquatic tardigrades in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee, U.S.A., with the description of a new species of Thulinius (Tardigrada, Isohypsibiidae)**

ROBERTO BERTOLANI⁺⁻
PAUL J. BARTELS⁺⁻
ROBERTO GUIDETTI⁺⁻
MICHELE CESARI⁺⁻
DIANE R. NELSON⁺⁻

Department of Education and Human Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Department of Biology, Warren Wilson College, Asheville, NC 28815, USA.

Department of Life Sciences, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Modena, Italy.

Department of Biological Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 37614-1710, USA.

biodiversity biological inventory Eutardigrada freshwater meiofauna Southern Appalachians Thulinius romanoi sp. nov.

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Abstract

As part of the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (http://www.dlia.org), an extensive survey of tardigrades has been conducted in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) in Tennessee and North Carolina, U.S.A., by Bartels and Nelson. Freshwater tardigrades include three species in the aquatic genus Thulinius (Eutardigrada, Isohypsibiidae). A new species, Thulinius romanoi, described from stream sediment, is distinguished from all other congeners by having a sculptured cuticle. In addition, the presence of Thulinius augusti (Murray, 1907) was verified by combined morphological and molecular analysis, and nine specimens of a third species, Thulinius cf. saltursus, were also found. Thulinius augusti is a new record for the United States. Thulinius saltursus (Schuster, Toftner & Grigarick, 1978) was previously recorded in California and Ohio, but our specimens vary slightly in morphology. The list of tardigrades from streams in the GSMNP was updated to a total of 44 species, 22 of which were predominantly or exclusively aquatic.