Morphological descriptions of five scuticociliates including one new species of Falcicyclidium

Abstract

Five scuticociliates, collected from China, were morphologically studied using standard methods One represents a new member of the genus Falcicyclidium, F. citriforme nov. spec., which can be recognised mainly by a combination of the following charactersusually two macronuclear nodules, buccal field about half of body length, ten somatic kineties, about 22 kinetal units in somatic kinety 1 and n, and excretory pore near posterior end of somatic kinety n. A redescription for Biggaria bermudensis was provided to include the feature of scutica and argyrome based on new isolate, and variations between different isolates were also discussed. The new population of Sathrophilus holtae differs from the type population by two postoral kineties and fewer kinetal units in the scutica. Its stomatogenesis belongs to the scuticobuccokinetal type, which shows similarities with Dexiotricha among loxocephalids. Morphometric data and brief descriptions were supplied for another two species, i.e., Protocyclidium citrullus and Cyclidium varibonneti.