Gonostomum kuehnelti Foissner, 1987

Kim, Ji Hye & Jung, Atef Omar and Jae-Ho, 2020, Brief description of 18 newly recorded ciliate species from soil and inland waters (Protozoa, Ciliophora) in South Korea, Journal of Species Research 9 (3), pp. 251-268 : 252

1. Gonostomum kuehnelti Foissner, 1987 ( Fig. 1 )

Material examined. Terrestrial moss collected from Mt. Odaesan , Odaesan-ro , Jinbu-myeon , Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do, Korea (N 37°43 ʹ 53.2 ʺ, E 128°35 ʹ 23.4 ʺ) on 28 April 2018 .

Diagnosis. Size in vivo 70 - 110 × 20 - 35 μm and 65 - 95 × 19 - 30 (n = 11) after protargol impregnation. Body ellipsoid to elongate ellipsoid with both ends narrowed and margins parallel. 15 - 23 macronuclear nodules usually arranged in two groups. Cortical granules rod-shaped, colorless, and 0.5 × 1 μm in vivo. Cytoplasm colorless. Adoral zone of membranelles about 45% of body length and composed of 25 - 29 membranelles. Three frontal cirri, single buccal cirrus, frontoventral row III with only one cirrus posterior to right frontal cirrus, frontoventral rows IV and V and frontoterminal row each consist of two cirri. Two pretransverse and two transverse cirri near cell end. Right and left marginal row composed of 22 - 26 and 16 - 19 cirri, respectively. Three dorsal kineties each ends with a single caudal cirrus.

Distribution. Antarctica, Austria, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Slovakia, Turkey, and Korea.

Remarks. Gonostomum kuehnelti is unique within the genus in having a higher number of macronuclear nodules arranged in two groups. The Korean population of G. kuehnelti fits the description of the type ( Foissner, 1987), the Indian ( Kamra et al., 2008), and the Chinese ( Ning et al., 2019) population but differs mainly in the higher number of macronuclear nodules (15 - 23 vs. 10 - 17, 13 - 19, and 7 - 16, respectively).

Voucher slides. One slide with protargol-impregnated specimens were deposited at the Nakdonggang National Institute of Biological Resources (NNIBRPR11674).

Figures

Fig. 1. Gonostomum kuehnelti from life (A) and after protargol impregnation (B, C). A. Ventral view of a representative specimen. B. Somatic and oral ciliature of ventral side. C. Dorsal kineties and nuclear apparatus. 1-3, dorsal kineties; III-VI, frontoventral rows; BC, buccal cirrus; CC, caudal cirri; FC, frontal cirri; LMR, left marginal row; MA, macronuclear nodules; RMR, right marginal row; PTC, pre- transverse cirri; TC, transverse cirri. Scale bars=30μm.