Epistylis balatonica Stiller, 1931

Chatterjee, Tapas, 2025, A checklist of peritrich ciliate epibionts (Ciliophora, Peritrichea) on aquatic oligochaetes (Annelida, Oligochaeta), Zootaxa 5725 (1), pp. 106-118 : 107

Epistylis balatonica Stiller, 1931

Report as epibiont on oligochaetes: This species was reported as the epibiont of oligochaete species from Ukraine ( Boshko 2009; Schödel 2018). The peritrich was often attached to the stalks of Rhabdostyla inclinans (= Opercularia inclinans ), Epistylis tubificis , and E. tschorici , which were in turn attached to oligochaetes ( Boshko 2009).

Remarks: This species was reported on the mollusc Unio pictorum ( Stiller 1931; Kahl 1935; Schödel 2018; Porto et al. 2024), the amphipod Gammarus pulex ( Schödel 2018; Porto et al. 2024), and caddisfly larvae ( Nenninger 1948; Schödel 2018). This species was also reported on leeches Glossiphonia complanata and Helobdella stagnalis from Ukraine ( Boshko 2009). Mayén-Estrada et al. (2024) kept the ciliates under Epistylis chrysemidis Bishop & Jahn, 1941 , which was reported as Epistylis balatonica on bivalve Unio pictorum from Hungary.

Epistylis balatonica was sometimes observed attaching to the stalks of E. borysthenicus , which were present on soft parts of the bodies of mollusks from the genera Unio and Anodonta found in Ukraine ( Boshko 2009).