Heterotrophic ¯ agellates (Protista) from marine sediments of Botany Bay, Australia
Author
Lee, Won Je
Author
Patterson, David J.
text
Journal of Natural History
2000
34
483
562
journal article
1464-5262
Ciliophrys infusionum
Cienkowski, 1876
(®gure 20h)
Description.
Helioāgellate, in the heliozoan stage the cell measures about 5 Mm across, with a central nucleus and one ¯agellum held in a ®gure of eight. The cell is spherical with delicate pseudopodia extending radially from the body and bearing extrusomes. The cell may change from the heliozoan stage with pseudopodia and a slow beating ¯agellum to a swimming ¯agellate without pseudopodia and with the ¯agellum beating rapidly. Observed to consume suspended bacteria. When feeding, bacteria adhere to the pseudopodia and then are drawn to the body. One cell observed in enrichment culture.
Remarks.
Ciliophrys marina
Caullery, 1909
and
Dimorpha monomastix
Penard, 1921 are synonyms of this species.
Ciliophrys infusionum
has been found in marine sites in SE North America, subtropical and tropical
Australia
,
Denmark
,
England
, English Channel,
Fiji
, Gulf of
Finland
, Hawaii, Mediterranean,
Norway
and equatorial Paci®c, and lengths of 3.5±20 Mm have been reported (
Caullery, 1909
;
Griessmann, 1913
;
Throndsen, 1969
;
Davidson, 1982
;
Larsen and Patterson, 1990
; Vùrs, 1992a, 1992b; Vùrs
et al
., 1995;
Patterson and Simpson, 1996
;
Tong, 1997
a
, 1997b;
Tong
et al
., 1998
). Generally, the cell described here is in agreement with observations by
Larsen and Patterson (1990)
. This species is similar to
Massisteria marina
Larsen and Patterson, 1990
, but can be distinguished by its regular symmetry, its stiOE pseudopodia, by not being adpressed to the substratum and in having one ¯agellum. It resembles small heliozoa in having pseudopodia extending radially from the body, but is distinguished by having a ¯agellum.