Morphology of four cyrtophorian ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) from Yangtze Delta, China, with notes on the phylogeny of the genus Phascolodon

The morphology of four cyrtophorian ciliates, Dysteria ovalis, D. semilunaris, Phascolodon vorticella, and Chlamydonellopsis calkinsi, were investigated using living observation and protargol-staining. The morphology of D. ovalis is revealed in detail for the first time, and it is characterized by the following combination of features: size 40-50 × 20-30 μm in vivo; oval in outline; four right kineties, including two frontoventral kineties and one shortened leftmost right kinety; three left frontal kineties; two ventrally located contractile vacuoles; marine habitat. New Chinese populations of three other species correspond well with previous descriptions, but a well-developed alveolar layer on the cell surface of P. vorticella is reported for the first time. Phylogenetic analyses based on small subunit rRNA gene sequences clustered Dysteria ovalis with Mirodysteria decora, whereas D. semilunaris is grouped with D. lanceolata. Although Phascolodon appeared as sister to Pseudochilodonopsis in the present work, its accurate phylogenetic position is still uncertain because AU test did not reject the possibility that it clustered with Odontochlamys and Chilodonella.