Metromonas grandis Larsen et Patterson 1990

Aydin, Esra Elif & Lee, Won Je, 2012, Free-living Heterotrophic Flagellates from Intertidal Sediments of Saros Bay, Aegean Sea (Turkey), Acta Protozoologica 51 (2), pp. 119-137 : 127-128

Metromonas grandis Larsen et Patterson 1990 ( Figs 1v , 4d)

Observation: Cell outline is leaf shaped. Cells are 5.5 to 9 μm long, and dorso-ventrally flattened. One side of the cell appears folded. The cells have two flagella of unequal length. The longer flagellum is 1.2 to 1.5 times the length of the cell and trails behind the cell when gliding. The short inactive flagellum is less than 2 μm long, inserts to the right of the long flagellum, and is always present. The cells move with a nodding action – like a pendulum. Description based on observations of five cells.

Remarks: Generally, our observations are in good agreement with the observations of Larsen and Patterson (1990) and Lee and Patterson (2000). Metromonas grandis is similar to M. simplex , but differs in its slightly larger size and folded margin. This species is reported from marine sites in Australia, Brazil, Fiji, Hawaii and Korea and cell length reported was 5 to 12 μm ( Larsen and Patterson 1990, Tong et al. 1998, Lee and Patterson 2000, Lee 2002b). Lee and Patterson (2000) reported three different cell shapes of M. grandis . Our cells are especially similar to the cells shown in Figures 24m and 26f of Lee and Patterson (2000). We believe that these three types should be separated to different species.

Figures

Fig. 1. a – Actinomonas mirabilis/Pteridomonas danica; b – Amastigomonas mutabilis; c – Ancyromonas micra; d – Bicosoeca conica; e – Bordnamonas tropicana; f – Caecitellus parvulus; g – Cafeteria minuta; h – Cafeteria roenbergensis; i – Cyranomonas australis; j – Developayella elegans; k – Discocelis saleuta; l – Goniomonas amphinema; m – Goniomonas pasifica; n – Kiitoksia ystava; o – Dinema platysomum; p – Anisonema acinus; q – Heteronema exaratum; r – Heteronema ovale; s – Kathablepharis remigera; t – Notosolenus canellatus; u – Massisteria marina; v – Metromonas grandis; w – Neobodo designis; x – Neobodo saliens; y – Percolomonas similis. Scale bar: 10 μm for all figures.