Morphology, ontogenesis, and molecular phylogeny of an Indian population of Cyrtohymena (Cyrtohymenides) shii, including remarks on the subgenus

The freshwater ciliate Cyrtohymena (Cyrtohymenides) shii (Shi et al., 1997) Shao et al., 2012 (Hypotricha, Oxytrichidae), isolated from Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary of The Eastern Himalayas, is slightly flexible, measures about 150 μm × 50 μm in life and possesses citrine cortical granules randomly distributed singly and in small clusters. Cells of our Indian population have five or six dorsal kineties arising from multiple fragmentation of the third dorsal anlage. The subgenus Cyrtohymenides includes species with multiple dorsal kinety fragmentation namely C. (C.) aspoecki (type species), C. (C.) australis, and the present species. Ventral morphogenesis of the genus Cyrtohymena has been reported only for the type species C. muscorum. Notable features of the Indian population include formation of frontal anlagen from four parental cirri, two more parental cirri possibly contribute to these anlagen later, and the formation of primary primordia which later split transversely to form two sets, one for each daughter cell. 18S rDNA sequence of the Indian population matches with those of two populations of C. citrina; it also clusters with Afrokeronopsis aurea, a neokeronopsid, with which it interestingly shares some morphological features, supporting the CEUU hypothesis.