Morphology and systematics of two freshwater urostylid ciliates, with description of a new species (Protista, Ciliophora, Hypotrichia)

The morphology of two freshwater urostylid species, Neourostylopsis flava spec. nov. and Pseudourostyla subtropica Chen et al., 2014, isolated from freshwater ponds in northern and southern China, respectively, was investigated following examination of specimens in vivo and following protargol staining. Neourostylopsis flava spec. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by the following characteristics: body size 150–220 × 50–75 μm in vivo; yellow in colour; bright yellow to yellow-brownish spherical cortical granules densely arranged along marginal cirral rows and in irregular short rows on dorsal side; adoral zone with 40–55 membranelles; six to eight frontal, three or four buccal, two pretransverse ventral and seven to nine transverse cirri; 27–40 midventral pairs extending to about anterior 55% of cell; four or five left and four right marginal rows; freshwater habitat. A redescription of a freshwater population of P. subtropica is also provided. Phylogenetic analyses based on small subunit ribosomal DNA sequences shows that P. subtropica and N. flava spec. nov. group with their congeners and both Neourostylopsis and Pseudourostyla are monophyletic.