Blepharisma penardi, Yan & Fan & Chen & Li & Warren & Al-Farraj & Song, 2016

Yan, Ying, Fan, Yangbo, Chen, Xiangrui, Li, Lifang, Warren, Alan, Al-Farraj, Saleh A. & Song, Weibo, 2016, Taxonomy and phylogeny of three heterotrich ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora), with description of a new Blepharisma species, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 177 (2), pp. 320-334 : 328

COMMENTS ON BLEPHARISMA PENARDI SP. NOV.

Blepharisma penardi sp. nov. was first recorded as a variety of B. lateritium by Penard (1922) ( Fig. 6A, C, D ; Table 3). According to the original description, the organism is ‘80–120 μm, shape variable, reddish, sometimes almost colourless, the shape of macronucleus like date-palm seed, mostly 4–6 small micronuclei’ ( Penard, 1922). Kahl (1932) described it as a ‘form’ of the newly defined species, B. steini Kahl, 1932 , i.e. B. steini forma penardi . The Qingdao isolate matches the original description in body shape and general morphology, coloration, and habitat. The only significant difference is the cell size (150–180 vs. 80–120 μm in vivo). As cell size is thought to be largely food- or populationdependent, we believe that these forms are conspecific and that our identification is correct.

Blepharisma penardi sp. nov. can be clearly distinguished from its closely related congener, B. steini , by its higher number of somatic kineties (24–34 vs. 18– 22 in the Korean population, 18–23 in the Austrian population, and c. 25 in the Danish population of B. steini ), the size of the contractile vacuole (large and conspicuous vs. small and inconspicuous in B. steini ) and the body shape (slender and sigmoidal vs. widely oval in B. steini ) ( Kahl, 1932; Larsen & Nilsson, 1983; Foissner, 1989; Al-Rasheid, 2001; Lee & Shin, 2009; Fig. 6B ; Table 3). Another possible difference is cell colour, that is, B. penardi is variable from colourless to dark-brownish whereas B. steini is invariably red in colour ( Kahl, 1932; Larsen & Nilsson, 1983; Foissner, 1989; Al-Rasheid, 2001; Lee & Shin, 2009). In addition, the separation of these two species is strongly supported by molecular data, their SSU rDNA sequences differing by 28 nucleotides (98.26% similarity) ( Schmidt et al., 2007).

Figures

Figure 6. Nominal isolates of Blepharisma penardi sp. nov. (A, C, D), Blepharisma steini (B), and Blepharisma undulans (E–K). A, C, D, B. penardi sp. nov., originally described as an unnamed variety of Blepharisma lateritium, from Penard (1922). B, B. steini, from Kahl (1932). E, B. undulans, from Bhandary (1962). F, B. undulans, from Lee & Shin (2009). G, B. undulans, from Kahl (1932). H, B. undulans, from Cela (1972). I, B. undulans, from Suzuki (1954). J, K, B. undulans, from Dragesco & Dragesco-Kernéis (1991). Abbreviation: Ma, macronuclear nodules. Scale bars = 90 μm (B, I), 80 μm (G, F) 50 μm (C, E, H), 40 μm (J, K).