Ichthydium

Schwank, Peter & Kånneby, Tobias, 2014, Contribution to the freshwater gastrotrich fauna of wetland areas of southwestern Ontario (Canada) with redescriptions of seven species and a check-list for North America, Zootaxa 3811 (4), pp. 463-490 : 473

Ichthydium sp. C4

Localities. A pond near Galt Creek, Puslinch district.

Material. 1 specimen.

A very slender and elongate species, 130–150 µm in total body length. Head slightly five-lobed with two pairs of short sensory ciliary tufts. Head barely delimited from trunk by a narrow neck constriction. Posterior trunk region very conspicuous, extensible like a telescope or spyglass. The furcal branches with adhesive tubes very thin and pointed. The cuticle is completely naked and very thin. Two thick tubercles are situated on either side of the furca, both with a sensory bristle. Anterior dorsal sensory bristles absent. Pharynx cylindrical approximately 1/5 of the total body length (26–30 µm). The animals crawled very fast and readily attached to the substratum by their adhesive tubes.

This taxon is definitely distinct from all known species of Ichthydium and it is surely a new species to science. It resembles species within the subgenus Ichthydium (Ichthydium) and is probably morphologically closely related to elongate species such as Ichthydium maximum Greuter, 1917 and Ichthydium leptum Brunson, 1949 .