Tachysoma pellionellum Stokes, 1887, a freshwater ciliate isolated from Stone Mountain State Park, North Carolina, was studied in vivo and after staining with protargol. The population was characterized mainly by having the typical 18 frontal-ventral-transverse cirri; posterior ends of left and right marginal rows not confluent; five dorsal kineties and one dorsomarginal kinety; two macronuclear nodules near left cell margin with one or two micronuclei between them; contractile vacuole located at mid-body near left margin. Morphogenesis is characterized as follows: (1) in the proter, the parental adoral zone of membranelles is retained completely; (2) 18 frontal-ventral-transverse cirri are derived from the anlage of the undulating membrane and the five streaks of the frontal-ventral-transverse anlagen; (3) marginal rows develop intrakinetally; (4) anlagen of dorsal kineties 1, 2 and 4 develop in the parental structure and anlagen of dorsal kineties 2 and 4 fragment in the posterior region forming anlagen of dorsal kineties 3 and 5; (5) only one dorsomarginal kinety formed; (6) the two macronuclear nodules fuse into a single mass, which then divides. Phylogenetic analyses based on sequences of the gene coding for SSU RNA revealed a close relationship between T. pellionellum and the Oxytricha clade, both of which grouped with Kleinstyla dorsicirrata and Heterourosomoida lanceolata.

Opaline is an unusual group of protists, characterized by the presence of flagella covering their whole body. They reside in the intestinal tracts of various animals, most notably amphibians. While there is a wealth of data regarding the morphological features of opalines, molecular data are extremely sparse. Consequently, the extent of diversity of this understudied group remains unknown. Here, we examine opalines from the intestinal tract of the amphibian Hoplobatrachus rugulosus in Thailand. We provide micrographs obtained from light and scanning electron microscopy of various opalinid morphotypes. Furthermore, we enrich the database of opaline sequences by providing new molecular data of the small subunit ribosomal DNA gene of these species. In our phylogenetic analyses, the newly derived sequences form a cluster sister to Protoopalina.

Members of the Urceolariidae Dujardin, 1941 have been found associated with a wide variety of invertebrate hosts from freshwater and marine habitats. Five species have been described from molluscan hosts from Europe and America. This paper deals with an urceolariid (Leiotrocha Fabre-Domergue, 1888) collected from the gills of Cellana radiata capensis (Gmelin, 1791) and Scutellastra exusta (Reeve, 1854) from the east coast of South Africa, as well as Patella depressa Pennant, 1777 and Cymbula safiana (Lamarck, 1891) from the bulge (west coast) of Africa. A higher prevalence was found on C. radiata capensis (89%) and P. depressa (72%) compared to the other two hosts. The urceolariid collected from the African limpets was identified as L. patellae (Cuénot, 1891). This is the first record of an urceolariid from any African hosts, including representatives of the Mollusca. Five urceolariid species were identified and described from gastropods, i.e. L. patellae Cuénot, 1891,U. karyolobia Hirshfield, 1949, U. cellanae Suzuki, 1950, U. viridis Richards, 1971 and U. parakorschelti Irwin, Sabetrasekh and Lynn, 2017. Motivation is provided why U. cellanae and U. viridis should be reallocated to the genus Leiotrocha, and U. karyolobia not. The taxonomic validity of the recent description of U. parakorschelti from limpets is commented on.

We investigated interrelationships between four free-living litostomatean lineages, using 18S rRNA gene and ITS region sequences as well as the secondary structure of the ITS2 molecules. Our phylogenetic analyses confirmed the deep split of free-living litostomateans into Rhynchostomatia and Haptoria represented here by Haptorida, Pleurostomatida, and Spathidiida. This bifurcation is also corroborated by the signature of the rhynchostomatian and haptorian ITS2 molecules. Specifically, the consensus stems of helices II and III are longer by one base pair in Rhynchostomatia, while the terminal loops of both helices are longer by one or two nucleotide/-s in Haptoria. A close relationship of Pleurostomatida and Haptorida is favored by quartet likelihood-mapping and supported by a 5’-AG vs. CU-3’ motif in the variable part of helix II and by two morphological apomorphies, i.e., meridionally extending somatic kineties and a non-three-rowed dorsal brush. Although monophyletic origin of Spathidiida is poorly supported in phylogenetic trees, the unique motif 5’-GA vs. UC-3’ present in the consensus helix II stem could be an important molecular synapomorphy of spathidiids, apart from the ancestrally anteriorly curved somatic kineties and the three-rowed dorsal brush. The peculiar family Pseudoholophryidae has very likely found its phylogenetic home among spathidiids, as an early branching lineage.

Chrysomela populi L. (Coleoptera; Chrysomelidae) is one of the most serious pests affecting poplars. Chemical control is the most widely known suppressive method against this pest. This method is not acceptable in urban forests because of their proximity to people. Entomopathogenic organisms are environmentally friendly control agents and suppress the pest populations under natural conditions. In the present study, the occurrence and distribution ofanew entomopathogenic protist,aneogregarine, Ophryocystis anatoliensis (Apicomplexa) in C. populi populations andamember of the family Chrysomelidae is presented for the first time. In total, 90 of 2185 C.populiadults and larvae collected from 16 localities during three years (from 2013 to 2015) were found to be infected by this pathogen. Neogregarine infection was observed in 14 of 16 investigated C. populi populations. The infection was variable between the populations and years. These results confirm that the neogregarine pathogen hasahigh dispersal potential through the C. populi populations and can be an effective natural biological suppressing factor on the pest populations.

Direct and indirect effects of crustacean zooplankton (cladocerans and copepods) are important regulators of ciliate communities, especially in eutrophic systems. However, it is not clear whether pseudodiaptomids (e.g., Schmackeria), one of the dominant calanoid copepods in Chinese lakes, effectively impacts natural ciliate communities. The impacts of small-bodied cladocerans (e.g., Bosmina) on ciliates are also controversial.

We performed an incubation experiment using winter lake water from Lake Chaohu to assess the structuring effects that crustacean zooplankton have on natural ciliate populations. The presence and absence of cladocerans (Bosmina sp.) and copepods (Schmackeria inopinus) were alternated in four treatments.

Both Bosmina sp. and Schmackeria inopinus had substantial impacts on ciliate abundance, biomass, and community structure. The response of ciliates was different in the presence of Bosmina sp. compared with Schmackeria inopinus and varied among categories such as the ciliate population, relative body size and functional feeding group. Our results also highlight the importance of interference and exploitative competition among metazooplankton groups.

A brackish water euplotid ciliate, Uronychia xinjiangensis n. sp., was discovered in a ditch in Yuli County, Xinjiang, China. Its morphology, ciliature and morphogenesis were investigated based on specimens examined in vivo and following protargol staining. The new species is characterized by the posterior part of the adoral zone composed of three membranelles, which has never been seen in all other known congeners. Other morphologic features include: (i) body oval-shaped, with conspicuous right anterior spur-like protrusion;
(ii)size in vivo 60–90 × 40–68 μm; (iii) two macronuclear nodules; (iv) four frontal, two ventral, five transverse, three left marginal and three caudal cirri. Its morphogenesis proceeds in a usual way, except that the oral primordium forms only three proximal membranelles rather than four proximal membranelles within congeners. The small subunit rRNA gene of the new species (GenBank accession number: KX147287) comprises 1723 bp and 44.63% GC content, and differs by 0.12–1.81% from those of congeners. Phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rRNA gene sequence data reveal that Uronychia xinjiangensis n. sp. clusters with other Uronychia species with full support, which supports the monophyly of the genus Uronychia Stein, 1859.

Naegleria is well recognized for primary amoebic meningoencephalitis which always results into death. To date there is not a single report demonstrating molecular identification of Naegleria from water resources of Pakistan thus the aim of the proposed study.Here, in total 135 various water samples (like domestic tap water, municipal water, sea water, well water, tube well water, canal water, boring water, sewage water, lake water and stream water) were collected across Pakistan and evaluated for Naegleria species. Naegleria australiensis (pathogenic) and Naegleria lovaniensis (non pathogenic) were isolated on non nutrient agar plates and were further identified by PCR and sequencing. To best of our knowledge we have described for the first time the isolation and molecular identification of thermotolerant pathogenic and non pathogenicNaegleria species from diverse water samples including drinking water across Pakistan. The presence of pathogenic Naegleria species in diverse water samples may add the health threat to the community.