A dentated backside, red dots and a broken stylet!

The three previous issues of the Water Bear web base were dedicated to those nice exotic tardigrades from the Canary Islands which we had received via Ebay.
Even after the three past issues we do have a few remaining mixed photomicrographs and hope that you will appreciate the following mixed pickle presentation based on those remains.


Let's begin with the dentated backside ...

At the very first screening of the Canary Island samples we noticed a tardigrade with many big pustules. In the beginning of targrade taxonomy this would have been a fairly simple determination as there were only a few species with name attributes like "tuberculosus", "nodosus" etc. But when browsing through the more recent literature like the taxonomy bible by Ramazzotti and Maucci we find out that there are legions of those strang pustule tardigrades - the end of simplicity.

dentated tardigrade from the Canary Islands (I). Body length ca. 350 µm

dentated tardigrade from the Canary Islands (II). Body length ca. 350 µm

dentated tardigrade from the Canary Islands (III). Body length ca. 350 µm

dentated tardigrade from the Canary Islands (IV). Body length ca. 350 µm

dentated tardigrade from the Canary Islands (V). Body length ca. 350 µm

dentated tardigrade from the Canary Islands (VI). Body length ca. 350 µm.

... and have a look at the red dots ...

The smallest tardigrades within the moss samples from the Canary Islands have a nice texture, a kind of overlay of a gray, grainy cuticula on one hand and a network of red dots on the other.

Tardigrade from the Canary Islands. Detail showing the texure of the cuticula. Body length ca. 150 µm.

Tardigrade from the Canary Islands. Detail showing the texture of the cuticula. Body length ca. 150 µm.

Tardigrade from the Canary Islands. Detail showing the texture of the cuticula and the last pair of claws. Body length ca. 150 µm.

Tardigrade from the Canary Islands. Total view belonging to the previous detail image. Body length ca. 150 µm.

... und we regret a curable accident

As already the famous tardiologist Ernst Marcus did report tardigrade stylets have a slight tendency to break, similar to all those human tools like scissors and knives. But as the tardigrade stylets are re-formed during each moulting phase the tardigrade is able to cure this effect in the long run. But it will be a difficult and hungry period of life for our tiny tardigrade. We did encounter such a stylet breakage for the first time when looking at the Canary Islands' samples.

Tardigrade from the Canary Islands. Detail, head region with broken stylet. Body length ca. 200 µm.

Resume

Exotic tardigrades are definitely interesting but species determination appears to be even more difficult, possibly because the most relevant taxonomic literature and the most species descriptions come from central Europe. Everything apart from Europe seem to be a little bit out of the center of gravity of taxonomy. So we recommend to enjoy living exotic tardigrades but not to spend too much time on their species determination.

© Text, images and video clips by  Martin Mach  (webmaster@baertierchen.de).
Water Bear web base is a licensed and revised version of the German language monthly magazine  Bärtierchen-Journal . Style and grammar amendments by native speakers are warmly welcomed.

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