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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 4854

Wilhelm Foissner; Pentahymena corticicola nov. gen., nov. spec., a New Colpodid Ciliate (Protozoa, Ciliophora) from Bark of Acacia Trees in Costa Rica. Arch.Protistenk 144:289-295, 1994

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Pentahymena corticicola nov. gen., nov. spec, was discovered in the bark of an Acacia tree from the Santa Rosa National Park in Costa Rica, Central America. Its morphology and infraciliature were studied in live cells and in specimens impregnated with silver nitrate and silver carbonate. The new genus, Pentahymena, belongs to the family Jaroschiidae and is unique in having five differently shaped oral structures and a distinct preoral suture containing many brick-shaped adoral organelles. The new species, P. corticicola, measures 130-160x70-100 µm and has an ellipsoid macronucleus, several micronuclei, and a contractile vacuole with collecting canals at the posterior end. About 55 somatic kineties commence around the oral apparatus and along the preoral suture and course spirally posteriad. The oral apparatus is in the anterior ventral third. The vestibular opening is slit-like and obliquely orientated to the longitudinal axis of the cell. The vestibulum is deep and narrow and contains the highly complicated oral infraciliature. On the right vestibular slope are about 8 densely ciliated vestibular kineties, on the left and in the preoral suture are approximately 25 small, brick-shaped adoral organelles. On the inner portion of the vestibular wall are two large ciliary fields composed of many short, tightly spaced kineties; the right field is hook-shaped and longer than the slightly crescentic left field. The anterior end of the postoral kineties is sharply bent back and densely ciliated, forming membranoid structures along the left oral ciliary field. 33 species of ciliates, which occurred together with P. corticicola, are new for the fauna of Costa Rica and listed in the ecology section.