Tracheleuglypha dentata (Vejdowsky, 1832) Deflandre, 1928

Bindu, L., 2023, Diversity of testate amoebae (Amoebozoa and Cercozoa) in Western Ghats of Kerala with 8 new records to India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 123 (2), pp. 117-134 : 131-133

90. Tracheleuglypha dentata (Vejdowsky, 1832) Deflandre, 1928

1832. Euglypha dentata Vejdowsky, Thier. org. Brunnenw Prag., 4: 38.

1928. Tracheleuglypha dentata Deflandre, Annales de Protistologie , 1: 37-43.

Material examined: Mi-362; 2exs., Tree moss, 22.ix.2016, Neyyar WLS.

Distribution: India: Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, West Bengal. Elsewhere: Cosmopolitan.

Remarks: Present record from Kerala.

Summary and Discussion

Although Western Ghats is a highly diverse ecosystem the testate amoebae diversity has not been thoroughly investigated. The present study comes out with the results of 90 species of moss-inhabitant testate amoebae spanning over 22 genera and 11 families from various habitats of the Western Ghats of Kerala. Species diversity in different habitats changes in a wider range concerning the highly variable environment along the different regions of the forest ranges. The abundance and composition of the dominant testate amoebae complex are closely dependent on the moisture content. It is evident from the results that the moisture content directly correlates with the richness of species where rich diversity was observed in the high moisture habitats, the Shenthuriney WLS and in two shola forest ecosystems. Also, it is observed that more diversity of testate amoebae was found in tree mosses than in other biotopes. It is worthwhile to mention that of these 8 species viz., Centropyxis kurakchayensis Snegovaya et Alekperov, 2005 ., Centropyxis loffleri Laminger, 1972 ., Nebela parvula Cash, 1908 ., Nebela spumosa Awerintzew,

1906., Physochilla tenella Penard, 1893., Euglypha marginata Van Oye, 1958 ., Euglypha strigosa heterospina Wailes, 1912 ., Argynnia gertrudeana Jung, 1942 ., turned out to be a new record for India. Of these, the family Centropyxidae recorded the highest number of species

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(20 species) followed by the families Hyalospheniidae (15 species) and Euglyphidae (13 species). On a generic level the genera Centropyxis (20 spp.), Euglypha (13 spp.), Difflugia (8 spp.), Cyclopyxis and Trinema (7 spp. each) have the greatest species richness and the genera Centropyxis , Euglypha and Difflugia together constituted about 46% of all testate amoebae recorded from the study area. At a higher taxonomic level, the most numerous is in the order Arcellinida which includes 67 species of 15 genera and 8 families followed by the order Euglyphida with 25 species, 5 genera and 3 families. A perusal of the literature revealed that only 9 species of testate amoebae have been reported from the Western Ghats of Kerala ( Nair, 2001) and the present study added 81 more species and raises the total number to 90 even though the percentage contribution is very low from a highly diversified ecosystem. The actual diversity may be far above that recorded here and to enrich the diversity, more intensive studies should be made in a wide spectrum.

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Acknowledgement

The author is grateful to the Director, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata for approving the programme and Officer-