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Morphological Studies on Four Brackish Water Ciliates of the Class Spirotrichea (Protista, Ciliophora)

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Abstract

We reinvestigate the morphology of two oligotrich and two hypotrich ciliates collected from the coasts of north and south China, viz., Parallelostrombidium obesum Liu et al., 2015, Spirostrombidium apourceolare Liu et al., 2013, Protogastrostyla pulchra (Pereyaslawzewa, 1886) Gong et al., 2007, and Uncinata bradburyae (Gong et al., 2001) Luo et al., 2015. All the populations match well with the original samples identified in previous studies. Supplemental taxonomic data were supplied for these four species of the new populations. The species Parallelostrombidium obesum is characterised by its dorsal-ventrally flattened body shape with anterior and posterior ends transversely truncating, as well as two thigmotactic membranelles and girdle kinety that spirals around the cell one and a half times. Spirostrombidium apourceolare is characterised by its elongate ellipsoidal and dorsal-ventrally flattened body shape, two thigmotactic membranelles, about 11–27 ovoid macronuclear nodules, and girdle kinety that spirals around the cell twice with two undulations. Protogastrostyla pulchra is characterised by its elongate body shape and unique, caudally located food vacuole. Based on the new populations, we described the smaller cortical granules, clustered around dorsal bristles for the first time. The new population of Uncinata bradburyae shares the diagnostic features with the type population, which include prominent beak-like projection in anterior region, the conspicuous gap of adoral zone, proximalmost adoral membranelles distinctly elongated, and infraciliature.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31801955, 31702009) and the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2017M622276, BX20180348)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Marine Life Sciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Yuan Song

  2. Institute of Evolution and Marine Biodiversity, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266003, China

    Yongqiang Liu, Bo Pan & Wen Song

  3. Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Xiaotian Luo

  4. Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    Alan Warren

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Song, Y., Liu, Y., Pan, B. et al. Morphological Studies on Four Brackish Water Ciliates of the Class Spirotrichea (Protista, Ciliophora). J. Ocean Univ. China 18, 663–674 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-019-4096-y

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