Dactylophrya, Collin, 1909

Chatterjee, Tapas, Dovgal, Igor & Sautya, Sabyasachi, 2023, New find of Dactylophrya-stage of parasitic suctorian of genus Tachyblaston Martin, 1909 (Ciliophora, Suctorea) with comments on genus taxonomy, Zootaxa 5389 (2), pp. 266-274 : 272-273

Gassovsky’s diagnosis of Dactylophrya -stage (as D. roscovita ) ( Fig. 5B )

The cell body covered by reasonable lorica with not very long, longitudinally and transversally striated, stalk. There are two nuclea and two contractile vacuoles. The bottle-like tentacles have characteristic for Dactylophrya shape but are smaller in size than described by Collin.

Dimensions (in µm): Lorica length 47–78, lorica width 25–42, stalk length 18–23.

Type locality: The coast of islet Nisida, the Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy ( Martin 1909).

Type host: Ephelota gemmipara .

The host of trophont stage: Ephelota gemmipara .

The hosts of Dactylophrya -stage: E. gemmipara ; Ceramium rubrum , Polysiphonia sp. , Chantransia sp. , Ectocarpus sp. , Enteromorpha sp. , Membranipora sp. , Campanula riajohnstoni , Mytilus edulis , Diphasia attenuata , aquatic mite ( Martin 1909; Gassovsky 1916; Kahl 1945; Grell 1950).

Remarks: It was Martin’s (1909) opinion that the parasitic stage of Tachyblaston is intracellular endoparasite. However, Grell (1950) has shown that the trophont stage permanently surrounded by a cavity, which is connected by a channel to the external environment. Hence, Grell believed that Tachyblaston is stationary ectoparasite. In turn Dovgal (2013) used the term mesoparasite in reference to parasitize in ciliates representatives of suctorian genus Sphaerophrya Claparède & Lachmann, 1859 , which also inhabiting in a cavity of host cell, connected with external environment.

Figures

FIGURE 5. Dactylophrya-stage of Tachyblaston found by different authors (A—after Collin 1912; B—after Gassovsky 1916; C—after Collin 1912 as Ophryodendron reversum).