New records of tardigrades from Colombia (Guatavita, Cundinamarca Department)

Authors: JENNY MELO, ELIANA BELTRÁN-PARDO, JAIME EDUARDO BERNAL, LUKASZ KACZMAREK

Abstract: The water bears (Tardigrada) from Colombia are rather poorly known; thus, the aim of this research was to study the composition of tardigrade fauna inhabiting epiphytic and rock mosses in a high Andean forest in Guatavita. A 25-m² plot was delimited and 6 randomly chosen trees with epiphytic mosses were sampled. Twelve samples of epiphytic mosses and 6 of rock mosses were collected and examined. A total of 277 specimens and 6 eggs of 8 tardigrade taxa were found in these samples. All taxa are new records for Guatavita and 5-Hypsibius dujardini (Doyère, 1840); Milnesium katarzynae Kaczmarek et al., 2004; Milnesium krzysztofi Kaczmarek & Michalczyk, 2007; Milnesium granulatum Ramazzotti 1962; and Paramacrobiotus danielae (Pilato et al., 2001)-are also new for Colombia.

Keywords: Andean forest, Eutardigrada, epiphytic mosses, Heterotardigrada, new records, rock mosses

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