New records of tardigrades from China, with zoogeographical remarks

Abstract: Tardigrades are small (0.05-1.20 mm), hygrophilous micrometazoans. This paper reports on 18 species of tardigrades found in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Xizang Provinces in China, primarily in lichens and mosses. Eight species are new records for China: Echiniscus nepalensis Dastych, E. reticulatus Murray, E. spiniger Richters, Isohypsibius sattleri (Richters), Diphascon (D.) pingue (Marcus), Diphascon (A.) prorsirostre Thulin, Mesocrista spitsbergensis (Richters), and Platicrista angustata (Murray). Two species are new records for both Sichuan and Yunnan: Minibiotus intermedius (Plate) and Hypsibius pallidus Thulin; one species is new for Sichuan: Pseudechiniscus suillus (Ehrenberg); and three species are new for Yunnan: Cornechiniscus lobatus (Ramazzotti), Pseudechiniscus jiroveci Barto, and Doryphoribius flavus (Iharos). This and previous papers have reported on 86 species and subspecies of Tardigrada from China. This is only ca. 9 % of the world limno-terrestrial and marine fauna of water bears. Among these 86 species only one is marine, three are found in freshwaters, and the others are terrestrial.