Regina Gabilondo
Acta Protozoologica, Volume 48, Issue 1, 2009, pp. 1 - 24
Fuscheriid haptorids are characterized by meridionally extending ciliary rows clearly separated from the dikinetidal circumoral kinety; a two- or three-rowed dorsal brush; and oral basket rods (nematodesmata) originating from both, the circumoral dikinetids and from some oralized monokinetids in the anterior portion of the ciliary rows. Using standard morphological methods, we describe four new fuscheriid taxa, each discovered in a specific biogeographic region. Fuscheriides tibetensis nov. gen., nov. spec. has rod-shaped extrusomes and two dorsal brush rows. It is a small (~ 80 × 10 μm), slender ciliate with only seven ciliary rows, and was discovered in grassland soil of southern Tibet, about 4600 m above sea-level. Aciculoplites ethiopiensis nov. gen., nov. spec. has acicular extrusomes and two dorsal brush rows. It is a middle-sized (~ 100 × 30 μm), oblong ciliate with about 22 ciliary rows, and was discovered in floodplain soil from a lake in Ethiopia. Fuscheria uluruensis nov. spec., which we discovered in mud and aeolic soil from pools on top of the Ayers Rock in the red centre of Australia, is unique in having the macronucleus split into about 12 oblong nodules. The nodules originate post-divisionally via the branching macronucleus strand, as in multinucleate spathidiids. Fuscheria nodosa salisburgensis nov. sspec., which was discovered in mud and soil of a meadow pool in Salzburg (Austria), has a long, tortuous macronucleus and about 45 ciliary rows. The resting cyst has an escape apparatus absent from the cyst of F. uluruensis, indicating that Fuscheria is non-monophyletic.