Cothurnia ovalis ( Wailes, 1928 ) Kahl, 1933

Sergeeva, Nelli G., Abibulaeva, Alie S. & Dovgal, Igor V., 2022, First finds of sessile ciliates (Ciliophora) in artificial and natural caverns on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea, Ecologica Montenegrina 52, pp. 33-41 : 35

1. Cothurnia ovalis ( Wailes, 1928) Kahl, 1933 (fig. 1, table 1).

= Cothurnia innata Wailes, 1928

Description. The species was originally described from Departure Bay, Vancouver ( Wailes, 1928).

Marine loricate peritrichs, with one zooid per lorica. Diameter of aperture slightly smaller than that of lorica. Aperture oval when viewed from above, aperture border without clefts. External stalk short with bulbous thickening at its point of attachment to lorica. Endostyle and mesostyle absent. Pellicular striations inconspicuous. After Warren and Paynter (1991) macronucleus short, curved and lies longitudinally in centre of zooid.

Our material. Gelatin-glycerine preparate ibss.Cil.2.v, deposited in the collection IBSS RAS (Sevastopol).

Locality. In present find this species is reported as an epibiont attached to Oligochaeta collected from underwater canal of the Balaklava Bay (the Black Sea) (station №1). Samples were collected at a depth of 5, 8 m.

Measurements. Morphometric measurements of Cothurnia ovalis observed in the present study (based on 8 individuals, in μm): Lorica length 73–86, lorica width 28–47 (40 μm long × 22 μm wide after Warren and Paynter, 1991), zooid when contracted length 29–51, width 19–29 (50–58 µm long × 12–18 μm wide after Warren and Paynter, 1991), external stalk length 16–38 (according Warren and Paynter, 1991 up to 27 μm), aperture 25–45 in diameter (27 μm × 14 μm after Warren and Paynter, 1991).

Table 1 gives detail measurements of various parts found in each of 8 individuals.