Phialinides australis Foissner, 1988

Kim, Ji Hye & Jung, Atef Omar and Jae-Ho, 2020, Brief description of 18 newly recorded ciliate species from soil and inland waters (Protozoa, Ciliophora) in South Korea, Journal of Species Research 9 (3), pp. 251-268 : 260-261

11. Phialinides australis Foissner, 1988 ( Fig. 11 )

Material examined. Terrestrial soil collected from Mt. Jeombongsan , Jindong-ri , Girin-myeon , Inje-gun, Gangwon-do, Korea (N 38°02 ʹ 10.3 ʺ, E 128°26 ʹ 11.3 ʺ) on 8 July 2018 .

Diagnosis. Size in vivo about 90 × 20 μm (n = 3). Body elongate elliptical clavate with widest portion posterior to neck; highly contractile, length: width ratio 4 - 5:1. Two macronuclear nodules in mid-body, micronucleus indistinct. Contractile vacuole terminal. Extrusomes form conspicuous bundles in oral bulge and in anterior half of cell. Cortex flexible, contains many minute cortical granules. About 13 somatic ciliary rows, individual rows composed of dikinetids anteriorly and monokinetids posteriorly. Few basal bodies (ciliary wreath) around the short neck.

Distribution. Africa, Australia, Central America, South America, and Korea.

Remarks. The Korean population of Phialinides australis agrees with the type population ( Foissner, 1988). To date, only four Phialinides species have been described ( P. armatus , P. australis , P. muscicola , and P. bicaryomorphus ). Phialinides australis differs from P. armatus in the shape of the extrusomes (rod shaped vs. drumstick) and the number of macronucleus nodules (2 vs. ~15). Phialinides australis also differs from P. bicaryomorphus in having less number (13 vs. 23 on average) of ciliary rows and different shape (ellipsoid to globular vs. discoid and flattened in middle) and number (two vs. one) of macronuclear nodules. It also differs from P. muscicola and P. bicaryomorphus in the size (small vs. large) of the cortical granules ( Foissner et al., 2002; Foissner and Wenzel, 2004; Foissner, 2016).

Voucher slides. Two slides with protargol-impregnated specimens were deposited at the Nakdonggang National Institute of Biological Resources (NNIBRPR11682, NNI BRPR11683).

Figures

Fig. 11. Phialinides australis from life (A, B) and after protargol impregnation (C, D). A. Cortical granulation. B. Oral and cytoplasmic extrusomes. C, D. Details of oral and somatic ciliature and the phialinid ciliary wreath(arrowheads). Scale bars=30μm (A, B); 20μm (C, D).