The Big Feast or The Feast of the Big Ones (I)
When diving into the micro world we are encountering very different scenarios: e.g.
there are complex mixtures of interesting species, like the ones found on the bordering concrete walls of the Munich city
river Isar - in fact most of those tardigrades are immigrants coming afloat from a southern mountain area.
But there are also much more simple scenarios, like those found within the moss of old roof tiles
where we come across red Echiniscus tardigrades and nothing else.
Both scenarios have their advantages and disadvantages. Complex mixtures of many species are
providing insight into the complexity of tardigrade populations and we can make use of them in order
to present a tardigrade universe to a visitor or a friend. Nevertheless there are problems as well:
E.g. we cannot be sure which tardigrade egg has been deposited by which adult tardigrade.
As a consequence simple populations can be easier to understand.
This and two upcoming issues of our magazine are focusing on feeding behaviour,
in particular on the feeding behaviour of big tardograde species, namely
Macrobiotus richtersi. Macrobiotus richtersi is quite abundant and
well known to science since more than a decade. So we conclude that the following
depiction of "Macrobiotus schultzei"
might as well represent an individuum of what we call Macrobiotus richtersi today.
Species names have a tendency to appear and to vanish - so we cannot really count on them.
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