Saepicula pulchra Leadbeater, 1980

Lee, Won Je, 2019, Small Free-Living Heterotrophic Flagellates from Marine Intertidal Sediments of the Sydney Region, Australia, Acta Protozoologica 58 (4), pp. 167-189 : 174

Saepicula pulchra Leadbeater, 1980

Figs 1f, 2g

Description: Cell body is 4–6 µm long. The flagellum is about 1.5 times the cell body and its tip is thin. The lorica consists of several transverse costae and 10 longitudinal costae. The anterior of the lorica is everted and the posterior of the lorica is conical. The anterior end of the lorica is surmounted by a single transverse costal band, which is connected to the longitudinal costae, and the lower part composes of several transverse and longitudinal costae. Cells attach with the end of the posterior to the substrate.

Remarks: This species has been described from subtropical Australia, Denmark, England, Gulf of Finland and France ( Leadbeater 1980; Thomsen 1992; Vørs 1992a; Tong 1997a, c; Lee 2015) and previously reported length is 2.5–5.5 µm ( Tong 1997a, c). According to previous authors, two chambers can be seen when using an electron microscope. This genus contains two species, Saepicula pulchra Leadbeater, 1980 and S. leadbeateri Takahashi, 1981 ( Thomsen et al. 1997).

Figures

Fig. 2. (a)–(b) Mastigamoeba psammobia, (a) general appearance of cell, note cytoplasms drawn from the posterior end, (b) general appearance of different cell and note pseudopodia. (c) Hexamita inflata, general appearance, note the nucleus. (d) Trepomonas agilis, general appearance of cell. (e) Chilomastix cuspidata, showing general appearance. (f) Stephanopogon sp., showing general appearance. (g) Saepicula pulchra, showing general appearance of cell. (h)–(j) Goniomonas amphinema. (h) Form I, (i) Form II, (j) Form III, note flagellar ar- rangement. (k) Roombia truncata, note attached cell to the substrate by the tip of the posterior flagellum, note extrusomes, surface striations and deep gullet. (l) Telonema subtilis, showing general appearance. (m) Harpagon descissus, general appearance of cell. (n)–(o) Spironema multiciliatum, (n) general appearance of cell, (o) note the kinetics. (p) Psammosa unguis, general appearance of cell. (q) Bicosoeca conica, general appearance of cell. (r) Apusomonas proboscidea, genera appearance of cell, note the V-shaped structure on dorsal face. All micrographs are DIC images except for (b), which is phase contrast images. Scale bar in (r) = 10 μm for all figures.