Tetranchyroderma megastomum ( 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 : 504

Tetranchyroderma megastomum ( Remane, 1927)

= Echinodasys megastoma Remane, 1927

Records from India. ANDHRA PRADESH: Visakhapatnam (Waltair)— Ganapati & Rao (1967), Rao & Ganapati (1968b). ODISHA: Puri—Rao (1969); GENERAL RECORD: Rao (1972), Naidu & Rao (2004).

Habitat (as in Indian records). Marine, intertidal; medium sand, 20 cm below surface at mid-water level.

Distribution. Originally found in the bay of Naples ( Italy), the species has subsequently been reported from several areas and localities including the Mediterranean Sea, North Europe, British islands, Atlantic coast of the USA and India. Naidu & Rao (2004) indicated the species to be present also in South Korea, however we could not find evidence in this regard, and the species is not included among the invertebrate fauna of Korea (see Lee 2012).

Remarks. Todaro et al. (2001) changed the species name ending from T. megastoma to T. megastomum according to the genus gender. According to the literature, the species appears to be eurytopic, having been found at different depths and in sediments of various grain size. The wide distribution, the variety of habitats and descriptions, some of which are discordant, call for a better comparison of the geographic populations, hopefully based also on molecular data.