Angursa capsula Bussau, 1992

Trokhymchuk, Roman, Schmidt-Rhaesa, Andreas, Utevsky, Serge, Kristensen, Reinhardt Møbjerg & Kieneke, Alexander, 2024, Towards a better understanding of deep-sea tardigrade biogeography: numerous new records from the Southern Ocean, Zootaxa 5543 (1), pp. 1-39 : 19

Angursa capsula Bussau, 1992

N= 680 specimens occurrence: ANDEEP I, II, III, ANDEEP-SYSTCO; 1,088–5,213 m bsl.

Fig. 8 E–F ; Supplementary Table 1.6

Short description

Angursa with a slender body (120–176 µm long, 20–30 µm width, n=5) and primary clavae longer than cirri A. Distance between both secondary clavae on the dorsal side of the head is 6.3–11.0 μm ( Fig. 8E, E 2 ). Capsules-like sensory organs on legs IV ( Fig. 8F ). Cirri E long (13.0–19.0 µm, n=5) ( Fig. 8E ).

Remarks

One of the most difficult species to identify because of unclear borders of the secondary clavae. On the sagittal position of the specimen we mostly used the length of cirri E as a species-specific trait, which are longer than 11 µm (Hansen & Fujimoto 2019).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Absolute abundances of Tardigrada from all 130 analysed core samples of expeditions ANDEEP-1 to 3 and ANDEEP-SYSTCO to the Southern Ocean plotted against depth. Samples were taken at different working areas in the Cape Basin, in the Lazarev Sea, in the Weddell Sea, in the Ona Basin, and at different working stations in the Drake Passage

FIGURE 8. Angursa bicuspis group. A Angursa abyssalis, male, light microscopy (DIC), ventral view. B female, light microscopy (DIC), head, dorsal view. B2 female, light microscopy (DIC), head, dorsal view, secondary clavae indicated. C male, light microscopy (DIC), dorsal view. D female, light microscopy (DIC), caudal region. E Angursa capsula, female, light microscopy (DIC), dorsal view. E2 Angursa capsula, female, light microscopy (DIC), dorsal view, secondary clavae indicated. F Angursa capsula, female, light microscopy (DIC), ventral view. Abbreviations: cE—cirrus E, ec—external cirrus, pb—pharyngeal bulb, pc—primary clava, sc—secondary clava, se—leg sensory organ, tc—tertiary clava.