Colpdidium zelihayildizae, Yildiz & O & V, 2021

Yildiz, İsmail, O, Published & V, Final, 2021, Morphology and phylogeny of a new soil ciliate, Colpodidium zelihayildizae n. sp. (Ciliophora, Nassophorea, Colpodidiidae), from Van, Turkey, Turkish Journal of Zoology 45 (4), pp. 304-313 : 311-312

4.1. Comparison of C. zelihayildizae n. sp. its relatives Since the establishment of the genus Colpodidium by Wilbert (1982), 5 nominal species, namely C. caudatum , C. horribile , C. trichocystiferum , C. microstoma , and C. bradburyarum , have been assigned to this genus. C.

zelihayildizae n. sp. can be easily distinguished from C. bradburyarum by its anteriorly directed horn-shaped buccal cavity, more dikinetids in the paroral membrane (20 vs. 8–10), and a single macronucleus. The present species should be compared with its other 4 relatives.

C. zelihayildizae n. sp. is much similar to the type species described by Wilbert (1982) in terms of its general body shape, location of the macronucleus, and the position of NO1, according to the information obtained from the photomicrographs and illustrations.However, since the author evaluated C. caudatum as a member of the class Colpodea , there have been serious errors and misinterpretations in the descriptions of the somatic and oral ciliature ( Foissner, 1990; Foissner, 1995; Foissner et al., 2002). However, it can be understood from the drawings that the 2 kinetosome pairs located on the left edge of the paroral membrane, which is located at a short distance from it, may be NO1. However, C. zelihayildizae n. sp. can be distinguished from the Wilbert (1982) population by its higher number of paroral dikinetids (20 vs. 17) and the organization of NO2 and NO3. It was not possible to compare the other characters because the original type population did not contain further details. Foissner (1995) and Foissner et al. (2002) redescribed the C. caudatum populations obtained from soil samples collected from various geographical regions (Costa-Rica, Namibia, and China). C. zelihayildizae n. sp. can be distinguished from the C. caudatum populations by the location of its buccal cavity (slightly below the equatorial plane vs. slightly above the equatorial plane in the populations from Costa-Rica and Namibia, while it is on the equatorial plane in the population from China), location of NO1 (distal end of paroral membrane and very close to it vs. behind the distal end of paroral membrane in the population from China), and number of kinetosome pairs in the paroral membrane (consistently 20 vs. 12−14, 12−13, and 14−19 in the populations from Costa-Rica, Namibia and China, respectively).

In terms of its general body shape, C. zelihayildizae n. sp. resembles C. horribile . However, the present species differs from it by the absence of extrusomes, body size (50 × 20 µm vs. 60 × 30 µm), number of somatic kineties (19−22 vs. 23−26), the position of NO1 (close to the distal end of the paroral dikinetids vs. behind the paroral membrane and