Chaetonotus (Hystricochaetonotus) anomalus Brunson, 1950

Chatterjee, Tapas & Todaro, M. Antonio, 2021, An annotated checklist of the chaetonotidan Gastrotricha from India, Zootaxa 5027 (3), pp. 332-350 : 336

Chaetonotus (Hystricochaetonotus) anomalus Brunson, 1950

Records from India. ANDHRA PRADESH: Kalikalur in Krishna District— Dhanapathi (1976), Rao & Mohan (1987); WEST BENGAL: Kolkata (= Calcutta), Howrah— Sharma (1980); ODISHA: Cuttak, Sambalpur— Sharma (1987); MEGHALAYA: Sharma & Sharma (1990); ASSAM: Ghorajan, Kamranga, Urmal, Solmari— Sharma & Sharma (2008); GENERAL RECORD: Naidu & Rao (2004), Purushothaman (2017).

Habitat (as in Indian records). Freshwater; among aquatic algae and angiosperms.

Distribution. USA, tentatively in Europe ( Poland, see Kisielewski 1981) and India.

Remarks. A key character of this species is the presence of seven, double-barbed spines (i.e., bear an additional notch), which originate at mid-trunk and project far beyond the other trunk spines. In India the species has been found three times, by Dhanapati (1976), Sharma (1980) and Sharma & Sharma (2008). The specimens reported in the last two occasions bear in full the key character of the species while the presence of the species in Andhra Pradesh by Dhanapati (1976) should be reassessed, because the found specimens depart somewhat from the original description (e.g., they are smaller in size and their spines are shorter).