Abstract
To survey the terrestrial tardigrades in Japan, mosses and lichens were collected at many urban areas since 1983. The tardigrades were extracted from these samples by addition of water and were mounted with Gum-chloral on slideglasses for microscopic observations. The present report is related to the occurence and distribution of tardigrades of seven cities in Kanto region including Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba, Mito, Utsunomiya, Maebashi and Urawa. Eleven species of tardigrades were found from 144 samples out of 318 samples colected in Kanto region. Four species including Echiniscus japonicus, Milnesium tardigradum, Macrobiotus harmsworthi and M. hufelandi are widely distributed in this region. The distribution of other 7 species are different by the locality. As for the co-existent animals with tardigrade in the moss flora， rotifers were higher (20.l %) than nematodes (1.6 %). Within 144 samples of moss, two to four species of tardigrades were found in 40 samples.
