New find of Dactylophrya-stage of parasitic suctorian of genus Tachyblaston Martin, 1909 (Ciliophora, Suctorea) with comments on genus taxonomy Author Chatterjee, Tapas Near Hari Mandir Road, Hirapur, Dhanbad 826004, Jharkhand, India Author Dovgal, Igor A. O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of RAS, 2, Nakhimov ave., Sevastopol, 299011, Russia Author Sautya, Sabyasachi Laboratory for Benthic Ecological Trait Analysis (L-BETA), Biological Oceanography Division, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography, Regional Centre, Mumbai - 400053, India text Zootaxa 2023 2023-12-19 5389 2 266 274 https://www.mapress.com/zt/article/download/zootaxa.5389.2.8/52515 journal article 282768 10.11646/zootaxa.5389.2.8 407a400b-044b-42f6-b5ad-82936d5d7f16 1175-5326 10406684 682D659F-A0BD-4D81-88A9-3250E6B3A3FB Gassovsky’s diagnosis of Dactylophrya -stage (as D. roscovita ) ( Fig. 5B ) The cell body covered by reasonable lorica with not very long, longitudinally and transversally striated, stalk. There are two nuclea and two contractile vacuoles. The bottle-like tentacles have characteristic for Dactylophrya shape but are smaller in size than described by Collin. Dimensions (in µm): Lorica length 47–78, lorica width 25–42, stalk length 18–23. Type locality: The coast of islet Nisida, the Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy ( Martin 1909 ). Type host: Ephelota gemmipara . The host of trophont stage: Ephelota gemmipara . The hosts of Dactylophrya -stage: E. gemmipara ; Ceramium rubrum , Polysiphonia sp. , Chantransia sp. , Ectocarpus sp. , Enteromorpha sp. , Membranipora sp. , Campanula riajohnstoni , Mytilus edulis , Diphasia attenuata , aquatic mite ( Martin 1909 ; Gassovsky 1916 ; Kahl 1945; Grell 1950 ). Remarks: It was Martin’s (1909) opinion that the parasitic stage of Tachyblaston is intracellular endoparasite. However, Grell (1950) has shown that the trophont stage permanently surrounded by a cavity, which is connected by a channel to the external environment. Hence, Grell believed that Tachyblaston is stationary ectoparasite. In turn Dovgal (2013) used the term mesoparasite in reference to parasitize in ciliates representatives of suctorian genus Sphaerophrya Claparède & Lachmann, 1859 , which also inhabiting in a cavity of host cell, connected with external environment.