Loricophrya bosporica Sergeeva et Dovgal

Sergeeva, Nelli & Dovgal, Igor, 2016, Loricophrya bosporica n. sp. (Ciliophora, Suctorea) epibiont of Desmoscolex minutus (Nematoda, Desmoscolecida) from oxic / anoxic boundary of the Black Sea Istanbul Strait’s outlet area, Zootaxa 4061 (5), pp. 596-600 : 597-599

Loricophrya bosporica Sergeeva et Dovgal , sp. nov.

( Fig. 1–2 )

Diagnosis. Marine loricate suctorian with elongate slightly asymmetric cell body completely covered with a lorica. Lorica (stylotheca), conical, pseudo-style not developed, adhesive disc absent. The stylotheca characterized by a gradual thickening of the walls toward the mouth. There is a transverse wrinkle in the lower part of stylotheca in some individuals. The cell body is attached to the lorica in the mouth with the help of its edges, which folded inwards ( Fig. 2 ). A few clavate tentacles are located at the apical surface of the body. Macronucleus rounded. Reproduction was not observed.

Dimensions (in µm). Stylotheca length 43–60, maximal stylotheca width 18–26, minimal stylotheca width 7, wall thickness of the lorica 1–2, body length 17–30, body width 16–23, tentacle length 7–20, dimensions of macronucleus 6– 9 X6–9.

Etymology. The specific name reflects the geographical situation of the species type locality in the Bosporus region.

Type locality. Istanbul Strait's area, Bosporus region, the Black Sea.

Type host. Desmoscolex cf. minutus Claparede, 1863 .

Type material. A hapantotype slide (registration number: No BC-001) and paratype slide (No BC-002) have been deposited in the Institute of Marine Biological Research RAS, Sevastopol, RF.

Differential diagnosis. The new suctorian species is close related to Loricophrya sivertseni ( Allgén, 1951) , which epizoic on the nematode worms ( Allgén 1951), and Loricophrya tuba ( Zelinka, [1913]) found on the shells of echinoderms ( Zelinka 1913). They are similar in the shape of stylotheca (especially by absence of pseudo-style), and arrangement of the tentacles at the apical surface of the cell body.

At the same time, the new species differs from L. sivertseni by relative development of its body, which takes no more than half, or a third of the lorica length, and by the edge of the lorica, which has no crown-like projections. Also adhesive disk which characteristic for L. sivertseni is absent in L. bosporica .

From L. tuba new species differs by considerably shorter stylotheca and prevalence to nematode host instead of echinoderms.

Figures

FIGURE 1. The distribution of Loricophrya bosporica sp. nov. on Desmoscolex cf. minutus from Bosporus Strait's area.

FIGURE 2. Schematic drawing of Loricophrya bosporica sp. nov. Scale bar: 20 µm.