Few studies using modern methods have been carried out on ciliated protozoa in tropical marine waters. In the present work, two hypotrichs, Parabirojimia multinucleata spec. nov. and Anteholosticha scutellum (Cohn, 1866) Berger, 2003, collected from Daya Bay in southern China, were investigated morphologically. P. multinucleata is distinguished by the following combination of characters: slender body, without a snout-like protrusion in the frontal field, and about 50 macronuclear nodules. The poorly known A. scutellum has never been investigated using modern methods; hence, a redescription is needed. During the present study, observations of specimens in vivo and following protargol impregnation revealed new information concerning structures such as the cortical granules and the infraciliature. A redescription and improved diagnosis are supplied based on the China population. The small-subunit (SSU) rRNA gene was sequenced for both organisms and comparisons with those of similar congeners clearly support the findings based on morphological studies.

The morphology and phylogeny of three heterotrich ciliates, Anigsteinia clarissima (Anigstein, 1912) Isquith, 1968, Blepharisma penardi sp. nov., and Blepharisma undulans Stein, 1867, were investigated based on living morphology, infraciliature, and small subunit (SSU) rDNA sequence data. The new species B. penardi sp. nov. is recognized by the following combination of characters: size about 150-180 × 45-55 μm in vivo, cell colour variable from colourless to pale pink to dark brownish; peristome extending to middle of body; 36-63 adoral membranelles; 24-34 somatic kineties; single macronucleus; cortical granules tiny and colourless; freshwater habitat. Anigsteinia clarissima and B. undulans are both reported from China for the first time and are redescribed based on a combination of previous descriptions and new data from the Chinese populations. Phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rDNA sequence data show that B. penardi sp. nov. and B. undulans are both located within a clade comprising only congeners, thus supporting the monophyly of the genus Blepharisma. Anigsteinia clarissima clusters with its only congener forming a clade that is sister to the Spirostomum assemblage. Both the morphological and the molecular data support the placement of Anigsteinia in the family Spirostomidae.

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Morphology and phylogenies of two hypotrichous brackish-water ciliates from China, Neourostylopsis orientalis n. sp. and Protogastrostyla sterkii (Wallengren, 1900) This paper investigates the morphology, infraciliature and small-subunit (SSU) rRNA gene sequences of two hypotrichous ciliates, Neourostylopsis orientalis n. sp., and Protogastrostyla sterkii (Wallengren, 1900) n. comb. (basionym Gastrostyla sterkii), collected from coastal waters in southern China. Neourostylopsis orientalis n. sp. is diagnosed mainly by the arrangement of brownish cortical granules, the numbers of adoral membranelles and frontal and transverse cirri and the characteristics of its midventral cirral pairs. The SSU rRNA gene phylogeny strongly supports the establishment of the new genus Neourostylopsis n. gen., which is characterized mainly by the following features: frontal and transverse cirri clearly differentiated, buccal cirri present, two frontoterminal cirri, midventral complex composed of midventral pairs only and not exceeding the halfway point of the cell, more than one row of marginal cirri on each side which derive from individual anlagen within each parental row, caudal cirri lacking. Thus, two new combinations are required: Neourostylopsis songi (Lei et al., 2005) n. comb., and Neourostylopsis flavicana (Wang et al., 2011) n. comb. Additionally, improved diagnoses for both Metaurostylopsis and Apourostylopsis are supplied in this study. Protogastrostyla sterkii (Wallengren, 1900) n. comb. differs from the similar congener Protogastrostyla pulchra mainly in body shape, ratio of buccal field to body length in vivo and molecular data. Based on the present studies, we conclude that the estuarine population of P. pulchra collected by J. Gong and others [Gong et al., J Eukaryot Microbiol (2007) 54, 468-478] is a population of P. sterkii. INTRODUCTIONThe hypotrichous ciliates are a species-rich and morphologically diverse group and, as a consequence, morphological identification is always a great challenge, especially for the highly diverse hypotrichs (Borror, 1963(Borror, , 1972Hu & Song, 2000;Berger, 2006; Shao et al., 2008a, b). This situation has been improved as a result of staining techniques that can reveal the infraciliature precisely and other morphological characteristics. Nonetheless, taxonomic difficulties still exist in determining differentiation between species or variation between populations, due to frequently overlapping or very similar morphological characteristics. In recent years, molecular information has been used widely for the phylogenetic study of ciliates and has gradually become a conservative diagnostic feature for species definition and circumscription (Chen et al., 2010;Foissner & Stoeck, 2011; Küppers et al., 2011;Paiva et al., 2012; Yi et al., 2012; Modeo et al., 2013).Abbreviations: AZM, adoral zone of membranelles; BI, Bayesian inference; ML, maximum-likelihood; SSU, small subunit.The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the SSU rRNA gene sequences of Neourostylopsis orientalis n. sp. an...

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