Ephelota gemmipara ( Hertwig, 1876 )

Chatterjee, Tapas, Dovgal, Igor & Fernandez-Leborans, Gregorio, 2021, A checklist of ciliates (Ciliophora) inhabiting on cnidarians, Zootaxa 5039 (2), pp. 151-178 : 156-157

Ephelota gemmipara ( Hertwig, 1876)

Record as epibiont on cnidarians: The species was first described by Hertwig (1876) as epibiont on the surface of hydroids and bryozoans from Helgoland Island, Germany. Precht (1935) registered the species on Gonothyraea loveni (named as Laomedea loveni ) from Kiel Bay of the North Sea. Under synonymic name Ephelota pusilla was observed on Plumularia setacea (Linnaeus, 1758) from Messina ( Italy), and from Algerian coast ( Kahl 1934). It has been observed alongwith pedicels of hydroids Eudendrium racemosum (Cavolini, 1785) from the Mediterannean Sea ( Bavestrello et al. 2008; Di Camillo et al. 2005) and from the Adriatic Sea ( Tazioli & Di Camillo 2013). It has also found as epibiont on Eudendrium rameum (Pallas, 1766) from the Pacific Ocean ( Yagiu 1980); found on hydroids from Strait of Georgia ( Wailes 1943; Mccazuley & Hancock 1971) and reported as epibionts on hydroid of the genus Obelia by Chen et al. (2008a). The species was also found on E. rameum , collected from off shore of Imperial Villa at Suzaki, Izu, Japan ( Yagiu 1980). In the same locality the species was registered by Yagiu (1980) under the name Ephelota crustaceora (Haller, 1878) as an epibiont on Eudendrium tenellum Allman, 1877 .

Record as epibiont on other hosts/ substrata: Ephelota gemmipara is ubiquitous species, observed colonizing inanimate substrates, algae, hydroids, bryozoans, etc. ( Dovgal 2013).This species was also found as epibiont on various copepods eg., Candacia armata Boeck, 1872 , Pleuromamma borealis Dahl, 1893 and P. gracilis Claus, 1863 , Euchaeta marina (Prestandrea, 1833) , C. tuberculata Wolfenden, 1905 , Labidocera acuta (Dana, 1849) , Undinula vulgaris (Dana, 1849) , copepods of genera Pontella and Labidocera ( Steuer1928; Rose 1924; Santhakumari 1985; Fernandez-Leborans & Tato-Porto 2000). Santhakumari (1986) reported this species as epibiont on the zoea of peacrab Porcellana sp. Yagiu (1980) has reported this species on alga Gelidium subcostatum Okamura in Schmitz 1894 off shore of Imperial Villa at Suzaki, Izu, Japan.The species was observed at artificial substrates (glass slides) exposited near Quingdao, China ( Chen et al. 2005). In addition, the species was found on ostracod Cypridina dentata (Müller, 1906) in the offshore of Arabian Sea ( Chatterjee et al. 2019b; 2020a). Purushothaman, J. et al. (2020) found E. gemmipara on copepod from the Bay of Bengal.

Remarks: The name Ephelota crustaceora sensu Yagiu (1980) was mentioned in Dovgal (2013) as a junior synonym of E. gemmipara .