A new species of genus Rhabdophrya (Ciliophora: Suctorea) from the west coast of India and comments on the genus taxonomy Author Chatterjee, Tapas Near Hari Mandir Road, Hirapur, Dhanbad 826004, Jharkhand, India. Author Dovgal, Igor 0000-0002-3876-233X A. O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS, 2, Nakhimov ave., Sevastopol, 299011, Russia. dovgal- 1954 @ mail. ru; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 3876 - 233 X dovgal-1954@mail.ru Author Sautya, Sabyasachi Laboratory for Benthic Ecological Trait Analysis (L-BETA), Biological Oceanography Division, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, RegionalCentre, Mumbai - 400053, India. text Zootaxa 2022 2022-08-26 5178 3 293 300 journal article 133195 10.11646/zootaxa.5178.3.8 ddac3b9b-b588-4a14-9ad9-f8040b6e3004 1175-5326 7026320 E728A17A-FD81-41AF-9300-70C2C8263C85 Rhabdophrya trimorpha Chatton & Collin, 1910 ( Fig. 4 A–D ) Diagnosis: Aloricate suctorian ciliate with extremely elongated, ribbon-like, slightly laterally flattened cell body. The cross section of the body is elliptical since the edges of the body are thinner than the central part. Short rod-like tentacles evenly distributed along the entire height of the body, not arranged in the fascicles. The macronucleus, ellipsoidal, single micronucleus positioned near macronucleus. There are two or three contractile vacuoles. Stalk short, thin, with small adhesive disk and good developed cup-like apical widening (epicone). Reproduction by vermigemmy ( Fig. 4 B ) with forming of short, unstalked swarmer ( Fig. 4 C ), which, after attaching to the host body, forming stalk with epicone, grows ( Fig. 4 D ) and turn into trophont stage. Measurements (in µm, after Chatton & Collin 1910 ): Trophont body length 160–175; body width 12–15; stalk length about 5. The length of undeveloped swarmer 45, width 10. The length of developed swarmer about the same as in trophont stage. Type locality: The Mediterranean Sea , Banyuls-sur-Mer , Cap l’Abeille , France ( Chatton & Collin 1910 ) . Type host: Cletodes longicaudatus (Boeck, 1872) . Other hosts and localities: The species also reported as epibiont on copepods Typhlamphiascus sp. and Enhydrosoma sp. from Slovenian coastal water, Bay of Piran, Gulf of Trieste, the North Adriatic Sea (FernandezLeborans et al . 2012).