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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Fuscheria

Ciliophora: Class Litostomatea Small & Lynn, 1981: Subclass Haptoria Corliss, 1974 (ref. ID; 4746)

[ref. ID; 4094]
The genus Fuscheria is characterized by the very small, button-shaped swelling at the posterior end of the extrusomes that fill the cytopharynx. (ref. ID; 4094)
  1. Fuscheria lacustris Song & Wilbert, 1989 (ref. ID; 2128)
  2. Fuscheria nodosa Foissner (ref. ID; 3698)
  3. Fuscheria terricola Berger, Foissner & Adam, 1983 (ref. ID; 4094 original paper, 4746, 4861) or 1993 (ref. ID; 2128) reported author and year? (ref. ID; 191)

Fuscheria terricola Berger, Foissner & Adam, 1983 (ref. ID; 4094 original paper, 4746, 4861) or 1993 (ref. ID; 2128) reported author and year? (ref. ID; 191)

Diagnosis

In vivo ca. 80-100 um in length and ca. 27 um in width (n=10). Body cylindrical to slightly bottle-shaped. Fifteen somatic kineties on the average. Many 5-7-um-long extrusomes. (ref. ID; 4094)

Descriptions

Body shape in vivo moderately variable, slightly bottle-shaped to cylindrical. Little or no flattening. Anterior distinctly narrowed, apical truncated, posterior widely rounded. The side with the brosse is convex, especially at the anterior region. The opposite ventral side is concave in the front third. Thus the anterior part seems to be curved. Slightly contractile. Cilia of the somatic kineties ca. 7-10 um long, those of brosse ca. 3 um. Pellicle slightly indented by the ciliary rows. Close beneath the pellicle, many tiny granules, probably not mucocysts because they were not ejected when the ciliate was stimulated by mechanical pressure or Methyl Green-Pyroin. Between the kineties a longitudinal fiber system, presumably postciliary microtubules. Cytostome circular in oral view, lies polar on a ca. 1-um-high hyaline oral bulge. Nematodesmata in vivo not recognizable, after staining with protargol very delicate. They form a funnel-shaped structure, filled with the genus-specific extrusomes that also appear in the cytoplasm. Additionally, in the cytoplasm there sometimes appear extrusomes enlarged in their midregion. Macronucleus usually horseshoe-shaped, unusually stretched or helical, lies centrally. Numerous, irregularly distributed nucleoli, sometimes forming a reticular structure. Micronucleus spherical, in vivo not recognizable. Contractile vacuole terminal, several slightly subpolar contractile vacuole pores. Endoplasm colorless, generally densely filled with many colorless, refractile 1-5-um inclusions and numerous dumbbell-shaped, ca. 2-um-long particles (bacteria?). Posterior region sometimes contains a few ca. 7-um-long, staff-shaped crystals. Movement moderately rapid with rotation around the longer axis of the body. Feeds in nature on ciliates (Vorticella astyliformis and Colpoda sp.) (ref. ID; 4094)
  • Infraciliature genus-specific: The somatic kineties are oriented longitudinally, rarely very slightly lift-spiralled. The distance between the kinetosomes of a kinety is smaller anteriorly than posteriorly. The anterior end of the kineties usually has a basal body. In some specimens the first and second basal body are arranged very closely, giving the impression of a basal body pair. Unusually two basal bodies lay side by side. The brosse consists of two rows, occasionally with a third, very short row. About 50% of population 1 has a dense group of 7 kinetosomes on the average in the anterior part of the third somatic kinety to the left of the brosse. In some specimens this group appears on the second or on the fourth kinety. The mesh-size of the silverline system is 0.2-0.6 um; it is oriented longitudinally. (ref. ID; 4094)

    Fuscheria terricola is a cylindrical to bottle-shaped soil ciliate which is slightly curved anteriorly. Its length amounts up to 100 um, the diameter is about 27 um. The macronucleus is mostly horseshoe-shaped, the micronucleus spherical. The contractile vacuole is terminally situated. The oral area contains many genus-specific nail-shaped toxicysts. There are about 15 bipolar somatic kineties. Two of these bear anteriorly the brush which is composed of paired kinetosomes. At the base of the oral cone there is a circumoral kinety composed of dikinetids. (ref. ID; 4746)

    Type location

    Moderately frequent in the soil of a bottomland near Grafenworth, Lower Austria. (ref. ID; 4094)

    Type specimens

    One slide of holotype specimens and one slide of paratype specimens have been deposited in the collection of microscopic slides of the Upper Austrian Museum in Linz. (ref. ID; 4094)