Coeloperix sinica, Pan & Jiang & Fan & Al-Farraj & Gao, 2017

Pan, Hongbo, Jiang, Jiamei, Fan, Xinpeng, Al-Farraj, Saleh A. & Gao, Shan, 2017, Phylogeny and taxonomy of five poorly known species of cyrtophorian ciliates (Protozoa: Ciliophora: Phyllopharyngea) from China Seas, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 180, pp. 475-492 : 487-488

COMMENTS ON C. RECTUS

Chlamydodon rectus was originally described by Ozaki & Yagiu (1941) without infraciliature. However, no subsequent description is available. Our population is rather similar to the Japanese population in all critical morphological characters, such as the number of ciliary rows (31–38 vs. c. 30), the number of nematodesmal rods (16–21 vs. 20–22), and the number of contractile vacuoles (c. ten vs. eight or nine). We conclude they should be conspecific.

Pan et al. (2013a) reviewed the genus Chlamydodon and indicated that the details of infraciliature, the number of nematodesmal rods, and the features of the CSB are reliable criteria for identification in the genus. To date, there are 12 valid species assigned to Chlamydodon , but only seven ( Table 5) possess a continuous CSB which need to be compared with C. rectus , namely, C. caudatus Pan et al., 2013 , C. exocellatus Ozaki & Yagiu, 1941 , C. minutes Dragesco, 1965 , C. mnemosyne Ehrenberg, 1835 , C. obliquus

CSB, cross-striated band; FLP, finger-like protuberance; NR, nematodesmal rod; PoK, postoral kinety; PrK, preoral kinety; –, data not available. LK, left kinety; NR, nematodesmal rod; PoK, post oral kinety; RK, right kinety; SK, somatic kinety.

Kahl, 1931, C. paramnemosyne Pan et al., 2013 , and C. roseus Dragesco, 1966 . Morphologically, C. rectus can be clearly distinguished from them by many characters, such as the number of somatic kineties, cell size, and the number of nematodesmal rods (more details in Table 5).

IDENTIFICATION OF THE CHINESE FORM AS O. ALPESTRIS BICILIATA

The Chinese population corresponds well with the original description in Foissner et al. (2002). The only difference is the number of kinetosomes in the terminal fragment (two to four in the Chinese population vs. invariably two in the original populations). Regarding the number of kinetosomes in the terminal fragment, which usually varies slightly between populations even in one population of chilodonellids ( Foissner, 1988; Blatterer & Foissner, 1992; Qu et al., 2015a), we confirm they are conspecific.