Monomicrocaryon, Foissner, 2016

Bharti, Daizy & Kumar, Santosh, 2019, Ten new records of Protozoan Ciliates (Protozoa: Ciliophora) from India, Records of the Zoological Survey of India 119 (2), pp. 111-119 : 113

3. Monomicrocaryon balladyna (Song & Wilbert, 1989) Foissner, 2016 ( Figure 1C )

Diagnosis of the Indian population (Data based on 4 specimens):Size about45×20μm in protargol preparations; shape elongate ellipsoidal to ellipsoidal sometimes ovate, dorsoventrally flattened. Contractile vacuole in midbody towards left cell margin. Cortex flexible, granules colourless and scattered. Nuclear apparatus composed of two macronuclear nodules; invariably one micronuclei arranged between nodules. Movement with jerk, static for a while and then crawling on soil surface. Adoral zone occupies about 42% of body length, composed of about 18 membranelles. Cirri, on average, composed of three frontal, one buccal, four frontoventral, three postoral, two pretransverse, and five transverse cirri, one left and one right marginal cirral row composed of nine and seven cirri respectively. Four or five dorsal kineties; three caudal cirri.

Material deposited: One slide with protargol-impregnated specimens have been deposited at the National Zoological Collections of the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, India with the following accession number Pt. 4012/9 (4 specimens marked on the slide) .

Occurrence and ecology: This species has been recorded from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and USA. The present study reports its presence from soil sample collected from the Flamingo Bird Sanctuary (19°06’40’’N 72°59’49’’E). The sampling site was having grassland and trees. It feeds mainly of bacteria and flagellates .

Figures

Figure 1. Photomicrographs of protargol impregnated specimens. A. Anteholosticha intermedia. B. Rigidosticha italiensis, arrowhead marks the paroral membrane. C. Monomicrocaryon balladyna. D. Urosoma karinae. E. Diophrys oligothrix. AZM, adoral zone of membranelles; BC, buccal cirrus; CC, caudal cirri; LM, left marginal row; MA, macronuclear nodules; MI, micronuclei; MVP, midventral cirral pairs; RM, right marginal row; TC, transverse cirri. Scale bars 40 μm (A, B, D), 20 μm (C, E).