Macrobiotus hibiscus de Barros, 1942

Kaczmarek, Łukasz, 2017, Annotated zoogeography of non-marine Tardigrada. Part IV: Africa, Zootaxa 4284 (1), pp. 1-74 : 43-44

125. Macrobiotus hibiscus de Barros, 1942 sensu lato [T]

Macrobiotus hibiscus Barros, 1942 ( Grigarick et al. 1973) Terra typica : Brazil (South America)

Tanzania:

• 06°22′S, 34°53′E: Undefined locality. Grigarick et al. (1973)

Record numbers. Tanzania: 1; total: 1.

Remarks. This reference is based solely on eggs, with no additional information. Macrobiotus hibiscus is possibly a junior synonym of Macrobiotus hufelandi as the morphology of this species falls within the Macrobiotus hufelandi group diagnosis (e.g. Kathman 1990). This group requires careful taxonomic analysis, including egg morphology, for correct identification (see Bertolani & Rebecchi 1993 for a diagnostic key and other papers for more recent species descriptions: e.g. Pilato et al. 2003b, Kaczmarek & Michalczyk 2004c, Fontoura et al. 2008b, Bartels et al. 2009, Kaczmarek & Michalczyk 2009b, Guidetti et al. 2013). A few additional species from the hufelandi group have been described from Africa and neighbouring islands, e.g. M. iharosi or M. madegassus Maucci, 1993 . Further work on the Brazilian type material or type locale will clarify the status and biogeography of this species. The limited material from this report suggests the presence of M. hibiscus in Africa is very doubtful.