Macrodasys caudatus Remane, 1927

Chatterjee, Tapas, Priyalakshmi, Geetha & Todaro, M. Antonio, 2019, An annotated checklist of the macrodasyidan Gastrotricha from India, Zootaxa 4545 (4), pp. 495-510 : 498

Macrodasys caudatus Remane, 1927

Records from India. ANDHRA PRADESH: Visakhapatnam (Waltair), Bimlipatnam—Ganapati & Rao (1967), Sarma & Mohan (1981); ODISHA (Orissa): Konarak—Rao (1969); KERALA: Azkikode, Fort Kochi (Cochin), Karunagapally, Neendakara, Ashtamudi—Govindankutty & Nair (1969), Nair & Govindankutty (1972), Aziz & Nair (1983), Nair et al. (1984); GENERAL RECORD: Rao (1972), Naidu & Rao (2004), Rao (2005).

Habitat. Marine, intertidal; coarse sand, 15–20 cm below surface, between low and mid-water levels.

Distribution. Widespread, recorded from numerous areas and localities outside the type locality (off palazzo Donn’Anna, Naples, Italy) including the West and East Mediterranean Sea, Northern Europe, British Isles, USA (Atlantic, Gulf coasts and Florida Keys) and Somalia (as M. cf caudatus ).

Remarks. According to the literature, the species appears to be eurytopic, having been found in fine to coarse sand, mostly with detritus or mud, but also in Amphioxus sand and among algae (e.g., Todaro et al. 1992).The wide distribution and the variety of habitats call for a better comparison of the geographic populations; future comparisons should include molecular data. According to W.D. Hummon (personal communication to MAT), the records of M. caudatus from the USA actually should be considered records of M. meristocytalis Evans, 1994 ; similarly, the Indian record from Kerala beaches is most unlikely to be M. caudatus , due to the lack of information regarding the shape and size of the accessory sexual organs (i.e., caudal- and frontal organ). It is evident that new material is needed to perform a robust identification of these animals.