Redescription of Ellobiophrya brevipes (Laird, 1959) N. Comb. (Ciliophora, Peritrichia) and the Fine Structure of its Pellicle and Cinctum

Abstract

ABSTRACT. A species of peritrich that attaches to gills of the skate, Raja erinacea, was identified by its original describer as a member of Caliperia, a genus characterized by having a noncontractile skeletal rod within the arms of its cinctum and by not having the cinctal arms bonded to one another at their tips. Our observations of the living ciliates confirmed by protargol impregnation and electron microscopy revealed that their cinctal arms are linked by a bouton and that the cytoskeletal structure within them has the fine structure of a myoneme. These characteristics place this peritrich unequivocally in the genus Ellobiophrya and it is thus renamed Ellobiophrya brevipes (Laird, 1959) n. comb. Clumps of epithelial cells clasped by the cincta of E. brevipes show damage at their bases but not on their luminal surfaces. The known species of Ellobiophrya are compared for significant structural differences that separate species of this genus.

Morphology and Phylogenetic Placement of Three New Zoothamnium species (Ciliophora: Peritrichia) from Coastal Waters of Southern China

“…The commonly accepted criteria for species circumscription in the genus Zoothamnium include: zooid shape and size, branching pattern of colony, characteristics of the stalk (e.g. with striations or smooth surface), location of contractile vacuole, oral structure (especially that of P3), features of the silverline system and habitat (Clamp , ; Foissner et al. ; Ji and Song ).…”

“…, , ; Kahl , ; Kent 1880–1882; Precht ; Sommer ; Stiller ). About one‐third of these have been investigated in respect to both living morphology and characters of the silverline system and infraciliature (Clamp , ; Foissner and Schiffmann ; Foissner et al. ; Hu and Song ; Jankowski ; Ji and Song ; Ji et al.…”

“…). The infraciliature, especially the details of infundibular polykinety 3 (P3) has been shown to be the most critical morphologic character for the delimitation of different Zoothamnium species (Clamp , ; Ji et al. ; Sun et al.…”

Evolution of Variations in the Common Pattern of Stomatogenesis in Peritrich Ciliates: Evidence from a Comparative Study Including a New Description of Stomatogenesis in Pseudepistylis songi Peng et al.,

“…The oral infraciliature of peritrichs consists of the same components (i.e. peristomial [Pk] and infundibular polykineties [P1, P2, P3], haplokinety [Hk], germinal kinety [Gk], filamentous reticulum [FR]), but the lengths, positions, and other structural details of these components differ among taxa, providing useful characteristics for classification (Clamp ; Clamp and Bradbury ; Clamp and Coats ; Clamp and Kane ; Foissner et al. ; Ji and Kusuoka ; Ji and Song ; Ji et al.…”

“…The oral infraciliature of peritrichs consists of the same components (i.e. peristomial [Pk] and infundibular polykineties [P1, P2, P3], haplokinety [Hk], germinal kinety [Gk], filamentous reticulum [FR]), but the lengths, positions, and other structural details of these components differ among taxa, providing use-ful characteristics for classification (Clamp 1987(Clamp , 1988(Clamp , 1989(Clamp , 1990a(Clamp , b, 1991(Clamp , 1992(Clamp , 1993(Clamp , 2005(Clamp , 2006Clamp and Bradbury 1997;Clamp and Coats 2000;Clamp and Kane 2003;Foissner et al 2009;Ji and Kusuoka 2009;Ji et al , 2006Ji et al , 2011Norf and Foissner 2010;Peng et al 2007;Qi et al 2009;Sun et al , 2006a. For example, some peritrichs (e.g.…”