Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:38:11.319Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The gastrotrich community of a north Adriatic Sea site, with a redescription of Musellifer profundus (Chaetonotida: Muselliferidae)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2009

F. Leasi  and
M.A. Todaro
F. Leasi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Milano, via Celoria 26, I-20133 Milano, Italy
M.A. Todaro*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via Campi 213/d, I-41100 Modena, Italy
*
Correspondence should be addressed to: M.A. Todaro, Dipartimento di Biologia Animale, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, via Campi 213/d, I-41100 Modena, Italy email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During a survey of the marine meiobenthos in a predominantly muddy area, 40 km south of Venice (northern Adriatic Sea, Italy), 11 species of gastrotrichs were recorded. Gastrotrichs were found in 11 out of the 16 investigated stations, with densities (mean ± standard deviation) ranging from 0.6 ± 0.5 to 97.7 ± 71.2 ind./10 cm2. The community was dominated by Musellifer profundus, which made up 24.5% of the entire gastrotrich assemblage and reached in a single station the abundance peak of 18.3 ind./10 cm2. The finding bears relevance to the biogeography and ecology of several species. The presence of numerous specimens of the rare M. profundus allowed new insights into the arrangement and functioning of the hermaphroditic sexual apparatus in this phylogenetically important genus, for which such data are scanty. The new information will certainly be useful in evolutionary studies aimed at reconstructing the phylogenetic relationships within Gastrotricha, while offering at the same time additional morphological traits to be used in reliable species identification. Although only three species of Musellifer have been described so far, there are several others awaiting a formal affiliation, a task that will benefit from this new information.

Keywords

meiofaunataxonomymorphologybiogeographyAdriatic Sea
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 90 , Issue 4 , June 2010 , pp. 645 - 653
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Coull, B.C. (1988) Ecology of the marine meiofauna. In Higgins, R.P. and Thiel, H. (eds) Introduction to the study of meiofauna. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 18–38.Google Scholar
Giere, O. (2009) Meiobenthology: the microscopic motile fauna of aquatic sediments, 2nd edition. Berlin: Springer-Verlag Press.Google Scholar
Guidi, L., Marotta, R., Pierboni, L., Ferraguti, M., Todaro, M.A. and Balsamo, M. (2003) Comparative sperm ultrastructure of Neodasys ciritus and Musellifer delamarei, two species considered to be basal among Chaetonotida (Gastrotricha). Zoomorphology 122, 135–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgins, R.P. and Thiel, H. (1988) Introduction to the study of meiofauna. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Hochberg, R. and Litvaitis, M.K. (2000) Phylogeny of Gastrotricha: a morphology-based framework of gastrotrich relationships. Biological Bulletin. Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole 198, 299–305.Google Scholar
Hummon, W.D. (1969) Musellifer sublitoralis, a new genus and species of Gastrotricha from the San Juan Archipelago, Washington. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society 88, 282–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hummon, W.D. (2007) Global database for marine Gastrotricha (taxonomic, geographic and video). Available from http://hummon-nas.biosci.ohiou.edu.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hummon, W.D. and Brient, H.H. (1991) Musellifer profundus (Gastrotricha, Chaetonotida)—a morphometric study. American Zoologist 31, A95. [Abstract.]Google Scholar
Hummon, W.D. and Todaro, M.A. (in press) Italian marine Gastrotricha: VI. Seven new species of Macrodasyida. Zootaxa.Google Scholar
Kristensen, R.M., Guidi, L., Pierboni, L. and Balsamo, M. (2008) Diuronotus aspetos (Gastrotricha): new morphological data and description of the spermatozoon. Journal of Morphology 269, 1490–1491. [Abstract.]Google Scholar
Leasi, F. and Todaro, M.A. (2008) The muscular system of Musellifer delamarei (Renaud-Mornant, 1968) and other chaetonotidans with implications for the phylogeny and systematization of the Paucitubulatina (Gastrotricha). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 94, 379–398.Google Scholar
Marotta, R., Guidi, L., Pierboni, L., Ferraguti, M., Todaro, M.A. and Balsamo, M. (2005) Sperm ultrastructure of Macrodasys caudatus (Gastrotricha: Macrodasyida) and a sperm based phylogenetic analysis of Gastrotricha. Meiofauna Marina 14, 9–21.Google Scholar
Pfannkuche, O. and Thiel, H. (1988) Sample processing. In Higgins, R.P. and Thiel, H. (eds) Introduction to the study of meiofauna. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 134–145.Google Scholar
Todaro, M.A. and Hummon, W.D. (2008) An overview and a dichotomous key to genera of the phylum Gastrotricha. Meiofauna Marina 16, 3–20.Google Scholar
Todaro, M.A. and Leasi, F. (2006) Further data on the Italian marine gastrotrich fauna. Biologia Marina Mediterranea 13, 1116–1120.Google Scholar
Todaro, M.A. and Rocha, C.E.F. (2004) Diversity and distribution of marine Gastrotricha along the northern beaches of the state of São Paulo (Brazil), with description of a new species of Macrodasys (Macrodasyida, Macrodasyidae). Journal of Natural History 38, 1605–1634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todaro, M.A., Balsamo, M. and Kristensen, R.M. (2005) A new genus of marine chaetonotids (Gastrotricha), with a description of two new species from Greenland and Denmark. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 85, 1391–1400.Google Scholar
Todaro, M.A., Balsamo, M. and Tongiorgi, P. (2008) Gastrotricha. In Checklist della flora e della fauna dei mari italiani (a cura di G. Relini). Biologia Marina Mediterranea 15 (Supplement), 160–169.Google Scholar
Todaro, M.A., Fleeger, J.W. and Hummon, W.D. (1995) Marine gastrotrichs from the sand beaches of the northern Gulf of Mexico: species list and distribution. Hydrobiologia 310, 107–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todaro, M.A., Guidi, L., Leasi, F. and Tongiorgi, P. (2006b) Morphology of Xenodasys (Gastrotricha): the first species from the Mediterranean Sea and the establishment of Chordodasiopsis gen. nov. and Xenodasyidae fam. nov. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 86, 1005–1015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todaro, M.A., Hummon, W.D., Balsamo, M., Fregni, E. and Tongiorgi, P. (2001) Inventario dei Gastrotrichi marini italiani: una checklist annotata. Atti della Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali Memorie Serie B 107, 75–137.Google Scholar
Todaro, M.A., Leasi, F., Bizzarri, N. and Tongiorgi, P. (2006c) Meiofauna densities and gastrotrich community composition in a Mediterranean sea cave. Marine Biology 149, 1079–1091.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todaro, M.A., Matinato, L., Balsamo, M. and Tongiorgi, P. (2003) Faunistics and zoogeographical overview of the Mediterranean and Black Sea marine Gastrotricha. Biogeographia 24, 131–160.Google Scholar
Todaro, M.A., Telford, M.J., Lockyer, A.E. and Littlewood, D.T.J. (2006a) Interrelationships of the Gastrotricha and their place among the Metazoa inferred from 18S rRNA genes. Zoologica Scripta 35, 251–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vivier, M.H. (1974) Musellifer profundus n. sp. Gastrotriche (Chaetonotidae) des vases profondes de Mediterranee. Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France 99, 183–186.Google Scholar