New Record of Ciliates, Blepharisma undulans and B. steini (Ciliophora: Heterotrichida: Blepharismidae) from Korea

Taxonomy and phylogeny of three heterotrich ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora), with description of a newBlepharismaspecies

“…Twenty-four to 34 longitudinal somatic kineties including two to five shortened postoral (right) rows (Figs 1F, L, 4F, G), with cilia about 12-13 μm long in vivo. The morphology and infraciliature of a South Korean population of this species were recently described in detail (Lee & Shin, 2009). Therefore, only a brief note of the Qingdao population is documented here.…”

“…These two widespread genera have attracted much attention for over a century, with several recent studies focusing on their molecular phylogeny (Stein, 1867;Anigstein, 1912;Giese, 1973;Isquith & Repak, 1974;Foissner, 1989;Aescht & Foissner, 1998;Dragesco, 2002;Schmidt et al, 2007;Miao et al, 2009;Zhou et al, 2010). By contrast, studies of their taxonomy and biodiversity have become less common in recent years that most, if not all, species have been described (Lee & Shin, 2009;Fernandes et al, 2013;Shazib et al, 2014).…”

“…This well-known organism has been reported on numerous occasions from sites all over the world and thus its identity is relatively easy to establish (Stein, 1867;Kahl, 1932;Suzuki, 1954;Bhandary, 1962;Cela, 1972;Dragesco & Dragesco-Kernéis, 1991;Lee & Shin, 2009). The Qingdao population corresponds closely with both the original report (Stein, 1867) and the redescription by Kahl (1932) in terms of its bright pink coloration and the pinkish cortical granules, general morphology, pattern of ciliature, possession of two macronuclear nodules, and habitat ( Fig.…”

“…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).…”

“…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).…”