Quantitative samples of sediment for the study of the meiofauna were collected monthly beween March 1996 and February 1997 from a 7-m-deep site in the Meloria Shoals, Livorno Italy. In the Tuscan Shoals, 16 species of tardigrades were found belonging to the families Stygarctidae, Halechiniscidae, and Batillipedidae. Megastygarctides orbiculatus and Actinarctus doryphorus are reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, and a redescription of Batillipes similis is proposed.