Epiphyllidae, Vďačný & Rajter & Shazib & Jang & Kim & Shin, 2015

Vďačný, Peter, Rajter, Ľubomír, Shazib, Shahed Uddin Ahmed, Jang, Seok Won, Kim, Ji Hye & Shin, Mann Kyoon, 2015, Reconstruction of Evolutionary History of Pleurostomatid Ciliates (Ciliophora, Litostomatea, Haptoria): Interplay of Morphology and Molecules, Acta Protozoologica 54 (1), pp. 9-29 : 26

Epiphyllidae fam. nov.

Diagnosis: Leaf-shaped Pleurostomatida without conspicuous neck-like region. Somatic ciliature of both right and left side forming sutures; a single dorsal brush row. One right and one left perioral kinety which can form a peripheral kinety. Oral bulge extrusomes lacking. Somatic extrusomes arranged around whole body except for oral region.

Type genus: Epiphyllum Lin, Song and Warren, 2005 .

Etymology: Composite of the stem of the name of the type genus and the family suffix -idae [Articles 29.1 and 29.2 of the ICZN (1999)].

Genera assignable: Epiphyllum Lin, Song and Warren, 2005 ; Kentrophyllum Petz, Song and Wilbert, 1995 .

Remarks: We have chosen Epiphyllum as the type genus of the family Epiphyllidae because its actual morphology is closer, according to the present likelihood reconstruction of ancestral ground patterns, to that of the last common progenitor of the Epiphyllidae than the actual morphology of Kentrophyllum .

The family Epiphyllidae differs from the family Amphileptidae by the presence of a suture also on the left side of the body, by the lack of oral extrusomes, and by somatic extrusomes forming a fringe all around the whole body except for the oral region. The two epiphyllid genera are easily separated by the absence/presence ( Epiphyllum / Kentrophyllum ) of spines along the ventral and dorsal body margin.