Genus description from Pilato & Lisi 2011: “Genus of Macrobiotidae characterised by claws of the tenuis-type, i.e. with a stalk, a long common section in which primary and secondary branches are joined, and distal free sections of both the secondary branch (shorter than the primary) and primary branch forming almost a right angle.
The bucco-pharyngeal apparatus is of the ‘Macrobiotus type’. Species attributed to this group share additional characters: narrow rigid buccal tube; small buccal cavity and poorly developed buccal armature; eggs of the known species laid freely and with conical or trunco-conical processes with more or less wide basal diameter.”
According to Stec & Morek (2022), this definition should be modified to have no pores in the cuticle, one microplacoid, and two placoids, the first of which may be deeply constricted.
Citations:
Pilato, G. & Lisi, O. (2011) Tenuibiotus, a new genus of Macrobiotidae (Tardigrada). Zootaxa, 2761, 34–40.
Stec, D. & Morek, W. (2022) Reaching the monophyly: Re-evaluation of the enigmatic species Tenuibiotus hyperonyx (Maucci, 1983) and the genus Tenuibiotus (Eutardigrada). Animals, 12 (3), 404.
