Echiniscoides sigismundi

Echiniscoides sigismundi is a species of marine tardigrade. It lives in seaweeds or plates of barnacles, or more generally in algal strongholds in inter-tidal areas.

Taxonomy
Echiniscoides sigismundi is the type species of Echiniscoides. Described in 1865 as Echiniscus sigismundii, it was placed in a separate genus by Ludwig Hermann Plate in 1888.

Distribution
By 1936, it was reported in most seas of Northern Europe, and in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.

The Light and Smith Manual describes its distribution as cosmopolitan, in the upper inter-tidal.

Osmobiosis
Echiniscoides sigismundi becomes turgid in freshwater, but can survive up to three days, resuming normal activity as osmotic differential returns to normal.

Infraspecies

 * Echiniscoides sigismundi galliensis Kristensen and Hallas, 1980
 * Echiniscoides sigismundi groenlandicus Kristensen and Hallas, 1980
 * Echiniscoides sigismundi hispaniensis Kristensen and Hallas, 1980
 * Echiniscoides sigismundi mediterranicus Kristensen and Hallas, 1980
 * Echiniscoides sigismundi polynesiensis Renaud-Mornant, 1976
 * Echiniscoides sigismundi porphyrae Grimaldi de Zio, Gallo D'Addabbo and Pietanza, 2000
 * Echiniscoides sigismundi sigismundi (M. Schultze, 1865)
 * Echiniscoides sigismundi verrucariae Grimaldi de Zio, Gallo D'Addabbo and Pietanza, 2000