Ciliate Hitch-hikers—Nematode ecto-commensals from tropical Australian sea grass meadows

Abstract

The presence of suctorian ciliates attached to the cuticle of heavily ornamented free-living marine nematodes, especially the family Desmodoridae, has been reported. Observations of nematode hosts and their attached ciliates were made from samples extracted from very ¢ne muddy sands of tropical Australian sea grass meadows. Measurements of the point of attachment of the ciliates revealed that they tend to position themselves near the anus/cloaca of the nematode host.

The Cost for Biodiversity: Records of Ciliate–Nematode Epibiosis with the Description of Three New Suctorian Species

“…It has been hypothesized that these attachment preferences may be connected with the mode of reproduction of some ciliates (i.e., vermigemmic budding) with a migratory stage unable to swim [27,58]. We found that half of the studied basibiont nematodes were colonized on the posterior body region (anus-cloaca) and on the vulva region; however, in all the other cases, ciliates were attached everywhere on the body as previously reported [21,26,64]. We also noticed that the majority of basibionts were adult nematodes, as reported from other authors (e.g., [26,68]), which may be explained by an epibiont strategy to avoid molt and with no distinction between sex.…”

“…Previous authors (e.g., [22,26,64]) suggested that the success of nematodes as basibionts was related to some of their morphological and physiological features coupled with their lifestyle, to which the number and type of epibiont ciliates are related.…”

Suctorian epibionts on Chromaspirina sp. (Nematoda: Desmodoridae) from the shallow continental shelf of the Bay of Bengal, northern Indian Ocean

“…Fisher, 2003;Dovgal et al, 2009), more specifically from the families Desmodoridae and Desmoscolecidae. Chromaspirina sp.…”

Report of Trematosoma rotunda (Ciliophora, Suctorea) as epibiont on harpacticoid copepod from western Indian coast

“…collected near Ratnagiri, Maharastra State, central west coast of India (Arabian Sea), and provide detailed remarks on the systematics and nomenclature of this species. Fisher (2003) found epibiont ciliate on nematode Pseudochromadora cazca Gerlach, 1956, from the intertidal zone of North-Eastern Queensland, Australia; Dovgal et al (2009a) identified this species based on Fisher's photo 'probably as Trematosoma rotunda (Allgén, 1952)'.…”