Some taxonomic and nomenclatural remarks concerning freshwater species of Gastrotricha Chaetonotida are presented. In the family Chaetonotidae, the subgenus Chaetonotus (Hystricochaetonotus) is synonimized with the subgenus C. (Chaetonotus sensu stricto). The genus Lepidochaetus is moved to a subgeneric rank into the genus Chaetonotus, and the subgenus Nudichaetonotus Schwank, 1990 is synonymized with C. (Lepidochaetus). Chaetonotus (Lepidochaetus) brasilianus is proposed as a replacement name for Chaetonotus brasilense Kisielewski, 1991, which has become a secondary junior homonym of Chaetonotus brasiliensis Schwank, 1990. Emended diagnoses of the genus Chaetonotus and of the subgenera C. (Chaetonotus sensu stricto), and Chaetonotus (Lepidochaetus) are given. The 3 subgenera of the genus Ichthydium introduced by Schwank (1990) have not been introduced in the present list. In the family Dasydytidae, the subgenus Dasydytes (Setodytes) is synonymized with the genus Setopus. Six new species by Schwank (1990) (Aspidiophorus ontarionensis, Chaetonotus (C.) furculatus, Chaetonotus (Zonochaeta) annae, Ichthydium malleum, Lepidodermella forficulata and Dasydytes (Setodytes) lemnicola) are nomina nuda. An updated list of the reliable world freshwater species of Gastrotricha is reported.

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Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all living European land and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at country level (up to the Urals, excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project covers about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. This represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many users in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education.Gastrotricha are a meiobenthic phylum composed of 813 species known so far (2 orders, 17 families) of free-living microinvertebrates commonly present and actively moving on and into sediments of aquatic ecosystems, 339 of which live in fresh and brackish waters. The Fauna Europaea database includes 214 species of Chaetonotida (4 families) plus a single species of Macrodasyida incertae sedis. This paper deals with the 224 European freshwater species known so far, 9 of which, all of Chaetonotida, have been described subsequently and will be included in the next database version. Basic information on their biology and ecology are summarized, and a list of selected, main references is given. As a general conclusion the gastrotrich fauna from Europe is the best known compared with that of other continents, but shows some important gaps of knowledge in Eastern and Southern regions.

A new species of Gastrotricha Chaetonotida was found in Denmark: it is the first gastrotrich finding from Danish brackish waters. The diagnostic scales at the dorsal posterior end account for the proposed name Heterolepidoderma caudosquamatum. The morphological affinity of the new species with marine species of the genus supports its marine origin.

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