Milnesium eurystomum Maucci 1988

Milnesium eurystomum Maucci 1988

I isolated 19 specimens from LF, MR, MT and LT samples. This species presented a short, wide buccal tube with its diameter decreasing toward the caudal end. This characteristic distinguishes this species from any other Milnesium species. The presence or absence of the basal spur on the outer claws (following terminology of Tumanov (2006)) is constant within each individual (if it is present it appears on all legs), but within each sample I have observed animals with basal spur and animals without basal spur. Twelve out of the 19 animals found had ocular spots; in the remaining specimens it was not possible to determine presence or absence of ocular spots. Up to 6 rotifer’s mastax (from Belloidea) and tardigrades (probably from Diphascon, Hypsibius and Macrobiotus species) were found inside some specimens. Body size ranged from 836 to 2112 μm, mean 1789 μm (SD 298). The species has been cited for Greenland and America. This is the first time it is recorded for Europe (Table 2). Milnesium eurystomun was found at two sampling points (Table 3).