Epiclintes auricularis auricularis

Choi, Jung Min, Jung, Jae-Ho & Kim, Jung-Hoon Kang and Young-Ok, 2020, New record of four ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) collected from rocky intertidal pools of South Korea, Journal of Species Research 9 (4), pp. 455-461 : 457-458

2. Epiclintes auricularis auricularis

( Claparède & Lachmann, 1858) Stein, 1864 ( Fig. 3)

Material examined. Marine water (temperature 16.4°C; salinity 34.6; pH 8.2) collected from Baekdo Island , Geomun-ri , Samsan-myeon, Yeosu-si, Jeollanam-do, South Korea (34°03′42″N 127°35′00″E) on June 4, 2013 ( Fig. 1 ; St. 4) .

Diagnosis. Body size about 250-350 × 30-40 μm in vivo; elongated and tripartite body composed of asymmetric auriform head, slightly wide trunk, and slender tail; dorsal bristle located on papillae; nuclear apparatus composed of 90-120 macronuclear nodules (3-8 × 2-5 μm) and several micronuclei (2.5-3.0 μm in diameter); 43-49 adoral membranelles; 1-2 frontal and 22-24 transverse cirri; 11-13 oblique fronto-midventral rows; 1 left and 1 right marginal row each with 57-60 and 68-73 cirri, respectively; three dorsal kineties.

Distribution. Worldwide ( China, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Sweden, USA, and Korea).

Remarks. The Korean population of E. auricularis auricularis follows to the original description by Claparède and Lachmann (1858) in following features: auriform body shape, about 300 μm body length; many oblique fronto-midventral rows; short cirri in tail part; short rodshaped on cortex. Our population slightly differs from the Chinese population in the following features: body width (30-40 μm vs. 45-60 μm); number of frontal cirri (one or two vs. consistently one); number of left marginal cirri (57-60 vs. 49-56) ( Song and Warren, 1996; Berger, 2006).

Epiclintes auricularis rarisetus Hu et al., 2009 can be distinguished from the Korean population of E. auricularis auricularis as follows: (1) number of adoral membranelles (23-33 vs. 43-49); (2) number of left and right marginal cirri (22-31 vs. 57-60 for left and 35-54 vs. 68-73 for right); (3) number of fronto-midventral rows (8-9 vs. 12-15) ( Hu et al., 2009).

Voucher slides. Two slides with protargol-impregnated specimens was deposited at National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBRPR0000110830) and Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST), respectively.

Figures

Fig. 1. Map of the sampling stations in South Korea. Each station (marked with red circles) located at three intertidal zones of the Korean Peninsula (St. 1-3) and Baekdo Island (St. 4).