Abstract
The Heterotrichea Stein, 1859 are a group of ciliated protists (single-celled eukaryotes) that occur in a wide variety of aquatic habitat where they play important roles in the flow of nutrients and energy within the microbial food web. Many species are model organisms for research in cytology and regenerative biology. In the present study, the morphology and phylogeny of two heterotrich ciliates, namely,
Linostomella pseudovorticella
n. sp. and
Peritromus kahli
Villeneuve-Brachon, 1940, collected from subtropical wetlands of China, were investigated using morphological and molecular methods.
L. pseudovorticella
n. sp. differs from its only known congener,
Linostomella vorticella
Ehrenberg, 1833 Aescht in
Foissner et al., 1999
, by having more ciliary rows (48–67, mean about 56 vs. 26–51, mean about 42) and its small-subunit (SSU) rDNA sequence, which shows a 15-bp divergence. Although
P. kahli
has been reported several times in recent decades, its infraciliature has yet to be described. A redescription and improved diagnosis of this species based on a combination of previous and present data are here supplied. Phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rDNA sequences revealed that the genus
Linostomella
is positioned within Condylostomatidae, and Peritromidae is sister to Climacostomidae with relatively low support, and the family Spirostomidae is the root branch of the class Heterotrichea.