Holophrya seyrli Foissner, 1997

Esteban, G. F., Finlay, B. J., Olmo, J. L. & Tyler, P. A., 2000, Ciliated protozoa from a volcanic crater-lake in Victoria, Australia, Journal of Natural History 34 (2), pp. 159-189 : 183

Holophrya seyrli Foissner, 1997 (®gures 12, 13)

Ciliates of the genus Prorodon are common predators in freshwater, brackish, and marine habitats. The ciliates are cylindrical or ovoid, with bipolar somatic kineties, and the shape and size of the cell are frequently modi®ed by the amount of food the ciliate has ingested (®gure 13). The buccal aperture is apical or subapical. The main morphological characteristic within the genus Prorodon is the presence of a`brosse’ (®gure 12), a structure formed by three (straight or oblique) rows of basal bodies ( Hiller and Bardele, 1988) located in the ®rst quarter of the cell’s anterior end. In some species it extends from the cell anterior (in the vicinity of the oral aperture) to the cell equator ( Esteban and Finlay, 1996).

Prorodon discolor is a cosmopolitan organism reported from fresh-, brackish, and sea waters throughout the world (e.g. Fenchel et al, 1995; Esteban and Finlay, 1996). It has also been described recently as a new species, i.e. Holophrya seyrli ( Foissner, 1997) . The organisms from Australia were 85±135 m m long, and 75± 110 m m wide, and presented 43±53 somatic kineties. The structure of the brosse was variable, formed by three or four oblique rows of kinetosomes that do not reach the cell equator (®gure 12). The number of nuclei is also variable. We found specimens with one macronucleus and no micronucleus, and specimens with one macronucleus and two micronuclei.