Mesorhynchus terminostylus Karling, 1956

Willems, Wim R., Sandberg, Maria I. & Jondelius, Ulf, 2007, First report on Rhabdocoela (Rhabditophora) from deep parts of Skagerrak, with the description of four new species, Zootaxa 1616, pp. 1-21 : 14

Mesorhynchus terminostylus Karling, 1956

Localities. Loc. 1, Loc. 2 and Loc. 6.

Known distribution. Northern Atlantic (see Karling 1956 and references therein).

Material. Three individuals studied alive. Three whole mounts.

Description and remarks. The animals are 1,1–1,7 mm long (measured on whole mounts). Their stylets are slightly bent because of excessive squashing. The three individuals show a clear difference in stylet length. Two of them have a stylet that is 46–49 µm long, whereas the third one is 81 µm long. The latter measurement is aberrant and falls clearly out of the known range (35–46,6 µm in Karling 1956). Proximally, the funnel of the stylet is 19–26 µm wide (n = 3; m = 22).

Apart from shallow habitats, this species is previously also found off the Norwegian and Greenland coast at 300 m and 180 m respectively (see Karling 1956).