Neostygarctus oceanopolis Kristensen, Sørensen, Hansen & Zeppilli, 2015

Trokhymchuk, Roman Ruslanovych, Arbizu, Pedro Martínez, Kristensen, Reinhardt Møbjerg & Kieneke, Alexander, 2025, Marine tardigrades of Princess Alice Bank (Azores, Northeast Atlantic) with a description of a new species of Quisarctus Fujimoto, 2015, Zootaxa 5711 (1), pp. 125-139 : 136

Neostygarctus oceanopolis Kristensen, Sørensen, Hansen & Zeppilli, 2015

Fig. 9 ; N=43; 295–306 m bsl

Remarks

Phenotypically remarkable tardigrades (115–188.5 µm in body length, n=12) with segmented body and three pairs of lateral body processes ( Fig. 9A ). All the specimens matched the original description ( Kristensen et al. 2015). Mid-dorsal spines sometimes were broken, but we confirmed the presence of ventral body plates, always one pair of ventral cervical spines ( Fig. 9B ), the presence of accessory spine on each claw ( Fig. 9C ), and the absence of eyes. Measurements of selected specimens presented in Table 3.

As we mentioned earlier, this species has been described from the Condor seamount, Azores ( Kristensen et al. 2015), and has not been reported yet outside of its type locality until this current record from the PAB.

Figures

FIGURE 9. DIC microphotographs of Neostygarctus oceanopolis. A habitus. B cephalic region, ventral view. C leg I digits, note accessory spines (arrowheads). Abbreviations: cE—cirrus E, ec—external cirrus, leIV—leg IV, lpI–III—lateral process I–III, pc—primary clava, sc—secondary clava, vcs—ventral cephalic seta.