Introduction to the Proceedings

The Tenth International Symposium on Tardigrada took place in Catania, Italy from 18th to 23rd June 2006 and was held in the Auditorium of Benedettini, a fascinating historic building in Catania's downtown. There were seventy-one participants at the Symposium, representing fourteen countries. The Symposium provided a unique opportunity both to review the progress of tardigrade studies and to allow all delegates to meet and to discuss topics of common interest. The Symposium included thirty-four lectures and thirty-one poster presentations on a wide variety of topics in tardigrade biology. They included systematics, morphological and molecular phylogeny, faunal studies, biogeography, ecology, survival strategies, and modern molecular methodologies in tardigrade research. The twenty-four papers appearing in this special issue of the Journal of Limnology represent most of the contributors present in Catania.