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Observation of a suctorian ciliate Ephelota coronata on the calanoid copepod Pontella spinipes in the southeastern Arabian Sea

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Abstract

This is the first report of an epibiotic suctorian ciliate Ephelota coronata on a calanoid copepod Pontella spinipes collected during the summer monsoon season in open ocean waters off Thiruvananthapuram, Southeastern Arabian Sea. The ciliate species is redescribed based on original data. The nomenclature history and an improved diagnoses both of Ephelota coronata and of genus Ephelota are presented. Information on the species distribution and the host species is deduced and refined from what is known from other species of Ephelota. E. coronata differs in body shape which is in form of a short rounded cylinder with the presence of a smooth, expanded upward stalk without folds and striae and a distribution of tentacles only at the apical surface of the cell body.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Centre for Marine Living Resources and Ecology (CMLRE), Ministry of Earth Science, Govt. of India for providing the facilities to conduct the research onboard FORV Sagar Sampada. We also thank crew members of FORV Sagar Sampada for the help rendered during the cruise period. The first author is thankful to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi for the award of Junior Research Fellowship. Second author’s (Igor Dovgal) work was made within the framework of the research issue of A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas АААА-А19-119060690014-5.

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  1. Department of Marine Biology, Microbiology & Biochemistry, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, Kerala, 16, India

    Aishwarya Purushothaman, Sanu V. Francis & K. B. Padmakumar

  2. A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas, Sevastopol, Russia

    Igor Dovgal

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  1. Aishwarya Purushothaman
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  4. K. B. Padmakumar
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Correspondence to K. B. Padmakumar.

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Purushothaman, A., Dovgal, I., Francis, S.V. et al. Observation of a suctorian ciliate Ephelota coronata on the calanoid copepod Pontella spinipes in the southeastern Arabian Sea. Symbiosis 81, 321–327 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-020-00704-w

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