Cyrtolophosis mucicola Stokes, 1885

Jung, Jae-Ho & Yeo, Jeong Hyeon, 2020, New record of five ciliate species from temporary ponds on a grass lawn, Journal of Species Research 9 (1), pp. 68-76 : 72-73

3. Cyrtolophosis mucicola Stokes, 1885

Diagnosis. Body size in vivo 24-40 × 10-16 μm (n = 5), 18.4-28.0 × 9.9-12.3 μm (on average 23.4 × 11.3 μm) after protargol impregnation; body shape elliptical to spindle; it lives in a hyaline dwelling-tube, which adheres to each other or to debris. One spherical to ellipsoidal macronucleus (3.6-4.5 × 3.4-4.0 μm) and one micronucleus (1.1-1.7 × 1.1-1.4 μm), located together in body center. Contractile vacuole subterminal. Oral apparatus composed of 4 adoral organelles, one oblique kinety anterior to the adoral organelles, and paroral membrane; adoral organelle plate-like polykinetids; paroral membrane curved leftward at proximal end, but the length highly variable (i.e., anterior body end to proximal end of buccal cavity or to the level of second adoral organelle), rarely fragmented to two segments; elongated cilia at anterior body end presumably from anterior paroral membrane and somatic kineties. 10 somatic kineties.

Distribution. USA, Europe, China, New Zealand, Antarctica, Africa, India, Australia, Russia, Japan, Greenland, and Korea.

Remarks. According to Foissner (1993), C. mucicola can be distinguished from congeners by the combination of the following features: the smaller body size (vs.>40 μm), the ellipsoid body shape (vs. ovoid), the elongated anterior cilia at anterior body end (vs. not elongated), the subterminal contractile vacuole (vs. terminal), and the presence of dwelling tube (vs. absence). Cyrtolophosis bursaria (Schewiakoff, 1892) Kahl, 1926 differs from C. mucicola by the body shape (ovoid vs. elliopsoid); howev- er the former is poorly described and considered as a putative synonym of C. mucicola by Foissner (1993). Much care should be paid to confirm the presence/absence of the dwelling-tube because organisms usually desert the tube when transferring (i.e., from field) ( Foissner, 1993).

Voucher slides. Two slides of protargol impregnated specimens were deposited at National Institute of Biological Resources, Korea (NIBRPR0000110181, NIBRPR 0000110182).