Light and electron microscopic studies on the excretory system of Macrobiotus richtersi Murray, 1911 (Eutardigrada)

Abstract

The excretory system of Macrobiotus richtersi consists of one dorsal and two lateral components and shows a high degree of structural complexity. In each of these a tricellular external lobe and a column can be distinguished, the two parts being connected distally. The surface of the lobe cells is increased by deep basal infoldings and fingerlike processes which form a labyrinth next to the basal lamina. Their cytoplasm contains numerous mitochondria, a well developed rough endoplasmic reticulum, dictyosomes, and granules in amounts depending on the physiological state of the animal. Excretory crystals occur in caveolae located in the lobe: between the fingershaped processes of the cell and in the space enclosed by the basal lamina on one side and the column on the other. The column faces an extracellular channel meandering along its whole length which is surrounded on the outside by a basal lamina. Morphologically the column is similar to the protonephridial channel of Rotifera. At the ultrastructural level, the cytoplasm of the column shows numerous mitochondria, rough endoplasmic reticulum, lysosomes, and a well developed Golgi apparatus. The lumen of the channel is coated by glycocalyx. At the base of the column several small cells form the proximal part of a duct that communicates with the gut. The morphology and ultrastructure of the excretory system of M. richtersi have been compared with similar a system in Isohypsibius megalonyx (Greven, 1979), and on these grounds a proposal is put forward to call the excretory organs of Tardigrada "nephridia" instead of "Malpighian tubules" .