Milnesium berladnicorum sp. n. (Eutardigrada, Apochela, Milnesiidae), a new species of water bear from Romania

Daniel Adrian Ciobanu; Krzysztof Zawierucha; Ioan Moglan; Lukasz Kaczmarek

doi:10.3897/zookeys.429.7755

Milnesium berladnicorum sp. n. (Eutardigrada, Apochela, Milnesiidae), a new species of water bear from Romania

Zookeys. 2014 Jul 29:(429):1-11. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.429.7755. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Daniel Adrian Ciobanu¹, Krzysztof Zawierucha², Ioan Moglan¹, Lukasz Kaczmarek³

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Biology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, B-dul Carol I, no. 20A, 700505 Iași, Romania.
² Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, A. Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznań, Poland.
³ Department of Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, A. Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Umultowska 89, 61-614 Poznań, Poland ; Prometeo researcher, Laboratorio de Ecología Natural y Aplicada de Invertebrados,Universidad Estatal Amazónica, Puyo, Ecuador.

Abstract

In a lichen sample collected from a tree in Bârlad town (Vaslui County, Romania), a new tardigrade species belonging to the genus Milnesium (granulatum group) was found. Milnesium berladnicorum sp. n. is most similar (in the type of dorsal sculpture) to Milnesium beasleyi Kaczmarek et al., 2012 but differs from it mainly by having a different claw configuration and some morphometric characters. Additionally, the new species differs from other congeners of the granulatum group by the different type of dorsal sculpture, claw configuration and some morphometric characters.

Keywords: Europe; Palearctic; Tardigrada; new species; taxonomy.