Eohypsibius nadjae Kristensen 1982

Eohypsibius nadjae Kristensen, 1982

(Figure 3)

Locality. Streymoy: “Við Áir”, homothermic spring 12ºC, altitude 50 m. Suðuroy: “Hvannhagi”, moss cushion, altitude 200 m.

Specific diagnosis. Very elongated wormlike body. The 3rd and 4th pair of legs separated by nearly a third of the total body length. Internal and external claws of similar size. Smooth lunules and two cuticular bars on legs I–III. Body length, 175–260 µm (two specimens measured). Eyes absent. Buccal tube length 23 and 26 µm, respectively. The annulations of the posterior part (after the insertion of stylet supports) of the buccal tube cannot be seen in glycerol preparations. Three macroplacoids and a large microplacoid. The macroplacoids increasing in length, or the first and second of almost equal length. First c. 2–3 µm long, second 3 µm and the third 4 µm.

Remarks. All Faroese specimens of E. nadjae fit the description of the type material from Disko Island, Greenland (Kristensen 1982). The new examples from this study included specimens from a moss sample not associated with homothermic springs, which supports the statement that E. nadjae is more terrestrial, i.e. a soil (Bertolani & Kristensen 1987) or interstitial tardigrade, than a true limnic tardigrade. No eggs of E. nadjae were clearly identified from the Faroese materials. However, one peculiar find was an exuvium-like object with 19 spheres, much like E. nadjae eggs, but of very variable size, and no trace of claws on the “exuvium”. It seemed curious that if these eggs were laid by a single female that they should vary so much in size. If they truly were E. nadjae eggs, this would be the first time that eggs were found in such large numbers within the exuvium. Worth mentioning is that these eggs were found in the same sample as adult individuals. Bertolani et al. (1996) report E. nadjae eggs laid free and two eggs laid in an exuvium identified as belonging to E. nadjae by the claws.