First description of an Arctic Loricifera – a new Rugiloricus-species from the Laptev Sea

Abstract

This is the first discription of Loricifera-species from the Arctic Ocean. Rugiloricus polaris sp. n. was discovered along with other species of the genus in samples from the Laptev Sea (Arctica). The new species is described from clayish deep-sea bottoms at 1,210 m depth. Apart from of a single adult male two Higgins-larvae have been found. The adult of Rugiloricus polaris sp. n. is characterized e.g. by its small rounded distally blunt mouth cone; four small oral valves around the terminal mouth opening; broad clavoscalids with round bases and ventral jags distally; strongly transformed and spiny ventral pair of clavoscalids; type B scalids of fourth row with serrated claw-tips; two types of trichoscalids differing in length but not in structure. The Higgins-larvae differ from others e.g. by hook-like type B scalids with double hook-tips; extremely short toes; long anterior setae with fine setules scattered along their dorsal and ventral margins.

Keywords:

• Loricifera
• Rugiloricus
• meiofauna
• Arctic
• Laptev Sea

We are grateful to Prof. Dr. H. Kurt Schminke for his kind help and for stimulating discussions. Special thanks to Prof. Dr. R. M. Kristensen for his helpful comments on the manuscript. We gratefully acknowledge the technical support by the staff of the AG Zoosystematik und Morpohologie. This work was supported by grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SCHM-352/15-1 and SCHM-352/31-1).

Notes

Published in collaboration with the University of Bergen and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway, and the Marine Biological Laboratory, University of Copenhagen, Denmark