To advance understanding of meiofauna, key components of marine benthic ecosystems, an international team conducted a morphology-based taxonomic survey and workshop around São Miguel, the largest Azorean island, in 2019. The survey yielded critical baseline data on meiofaunal diversity and, despite taxonomic challenges that limited identification of certain taxa, laid a solid foundation for further research. To expand these fi...

Twenty-two marine species of Dalytyphloplanida from Cuba, Panama, and Lanzarote are presented, sixteen of which are new to science. Five known species are recorded from Cuba: Kytorhynchus microstylus , Ceratopera paragracilis , Trigonostomum armatum , T . franki , and T . vanmecheleni . Neokytorhynchus pacificus is recorded for the first time in the Atlantic (Lanzarote). For one species, a new genus is erected to be included i...

Whereas most cnidarians are macrofaunal, a few microscopic lineages have evolved, and some of them inhabit marine sediments. The meiofaunal genus with the most species is Halammohydra , comprising nine nominal species. Species are described with high intraspecific variability in, e.g., the number of tentacles and statocysts and the shape and length of tentacles and body, complicating morphological identification to species lev...

Within meiofauna, cnidarians are represented by only a few species most of which are in the genus Halammohydra Remane, 1927. It represents highly modified medusae. Information about this group is limited, which complicates its placement in the Cnidarian tree and the relationship to another meiofaunal cnidarian, Otohydra Swedmark & Teissier, 1958. This needs to be clarified with molecular, but also with morphological methods. I...