Heterohartmannula, Pan & Lin & Gong & Al-Rashied & Song, 2012

Pan, Hongbo, Lin, Xiaofeng, Gong, Jun, Al-Rashied, Khaled A. S. & Song, Weibo, 2012, Taxonomy of five species of cyrtophorids (Protozoa: Ciliophora) including consideration of the phylogeny of two new genera, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 164 (1), pp. 1-17 : 2-3

GENUS: HETEROHARTMANNULA GEN. NOV.

Diagnosis: Dorsoventrally flattened Hartmannulidae with a tail-shaped podite; two circumoral kineties distinctly detached, obliquely arranged in a line with fragmented preoral kinety.

Type species: Heterohartmannula fangi sp. nov. All measurements in Mm. Abbreviations: CV, coefficient of variation (%); EF, equatorial fragment; FvK, frontoventral kineties; Max, maximum; Mean, arithmetic mean; Min, minimum; N, number of specimens; SD, standard deviation; TF, terminal fragment .

Etymology: The prefix ‘hetero’ indicates that the new genus is different from the well-known genus Hartmannula ; feminine gender.

Remarks: The family Hartmannulidae is characterized by: presence of podite, left kineties as a continuous field and macronucleus heteromerous ( Deroux, 1976c; Corliss, 1979). The genus Heterohartmannula corresponds well to these features. Thus it belongs to Hartmannulidae .

Compared with other related genera in Hartmannulidae (e.g. Aegyriana , Brooklynella , Chlamydonyx , Hartmannula , Orthotrochilia , Trochilioides ), the oral ciliature of Heterohartmannula gen. nov. is unique: the circumoral kineties are detached and obliquely arranged in a line (vs. closely arranged as equal marklike), and the preoral kinety is composed of several (e.g. two to four) distinctly detached fragments (vs. single and continuous) ( Deroux, 1976c; Song & Wilbert, 2002; Song, 2003; Gong & Song, 2004b, 2006). These differences support the establishment of a new genus.