Tachyblaston Martin, 1909

Chatterjee, Tapas, Dovgal, Igor & Sautya, Sabyasachi, 2023, New find of Dactylophrya-stage of parasitic suctorian of genus Tachyblaston Martin, 1909 (Ciliophora, Suctorea) with comments on genus taxonomy, Zootaxa 5389 (2), pp. 266-274 : 271-272

Genus Tachyblaston Martin, 1909

= Dactylophrya Collin, 1909

= Pleurophryodendron Jankowski, 1978 , syn. n.

Diagnosis: Parasitic suctorian with two alternate generations ( Fig. 4A, B ). First generation (trophont) positioned in the host’s cytoplasm and represents by rounded, unloricate, unciliary cell body with short and wide tentacle and ovoid, centrally located macronucleus. The trophont produced large, ovoid ciliated swarmer with a ciliary field on the right anterior area of the ventral surface, which attached to substrate (stalk of ciliate host, thallus of algae or invertebrate body) and transform into next generation. The latter generation ( Dactylophrya -stage) have unflattened, stalked cell body, covered by lorica. Dactylophrya -stage, in turn, produce several bottle-like or fusiform unciliary swarmers, which have short, single apical tentacle and can infected another ciliate host. Two species: T. ephelotensis Martin, 1909 (type species, after monotypy); T. reversum ( Collin, 1909) n. comb.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Life cycle of Tachyblaston ephelotensis. A—after Martin 1909 (A—trophont; B—ciliated swarmer; C—recently fixed ciliated swarmer; D—developing ciliate swarmer; E—Dactylophrya-stage; F—two dactylozoites creeping up the Ephelota stalk); B—after Grell 1950 (Ma-macronucleus of Ephelota; T—tentacle of trophont stage).