Taxonomy and biogeography of tardigrades using an integrated approach: new results on species of the Macrobiotus hufelandi group

This study reconsiders a tardigrade population previously studied and tentatively attributed to Macrobiotus cf. terminalis by Bertolani, Rebecchi (1993) with a new approach by joining molecular and indispensible traditional methods, light microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Differences in adult animals and, above all, egg shell morphology, and the peculiar cox1 sequence indicate that this population clearly belongs to a new species, M. vladimiri sp. n., which is here described. The results provide an example of how modern taxonomic and biogeographical research can be carried out on this animal phylum and in general on the animals belonging to the so-called meiofauna,in which morphological characters are often very few. This is the first tardigrade species to be described and barcoded contemporarily.