The taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of two epibiotic colonial peritrich ciliates (Ciliophora, Peritrichia)

Two colonial sessilid peritrichs, Epistylis qingdaoensis n. sp. and Carchesium cyclopidarum Nenninger, 1948, were isolated from a marine crustacean and a freshwater mayfly, respectively. Morphological characters for each species were revealed by in vivo observations and silver staining methods. Epistylis qingdaoensis n. sp. is characterized by the apperance of the colony which is up to 250 μm high and usually contains fewer than eight zooids, the single-layered peristomial lip, the conspicuously conical peristomial disc, and the structure of infundibular polykinety 3 which comprises three isometric ciliary rows. Carchesium cyclopidarum is recognized by the colony height of about 600 μm, the small zooid size of 35-50 × 20-30 μm, and the low number of silverlines. Phylogenetic analyses based on small subunit ribosomal DNA sequences were performed to reveal their evolutionary relationships. Surprisingly, neither species clustered with its congeners. Epistylis qingdaoensis n. sp. nested within a clade of Zoothamnium species that was sister to a clade comprising core Epistylis species and several Zoothamnium species. Carchesium cyclopidarum nested within a clade comprising solitary peritrichs and was distantly related to the type species of Carchesium, C. polypinum. These findings imply for the first time that Carchesium is non-monophyletic.