Diversity of apostome ciliates, Chromidina spp. (Oligohymenophorea, Opalinopsidae), parasites of cephalopods of the Mediterranean Sea.

ABSTRACT: Chromidina spp. are enigmatic apostome ciliates (Oligohymenophorea, Opalinopsidae) that parasitise the renal and pancreatic appendages of cephalopods. Only four species have been described, among which only three have been formally named. No DNA sequence has been reported so far. To investigate Chromidina spp. diversity, we sampled cephalopods in the Mediterranean Sea off Tunis, Tunisia, and identified two distinct Chromidina spp. in two different host species: Loligo vulgaris and Sepia officinalis. From haematoxylin-stained slides, we described morphological traits for these parasitic species and compared them to previous descriptions. We also re-described the morphology of Chromidina elegans (Foettinger, 1881) from Chatton and Lwoff's original materials and designated a neohapantotype an

SUBMITTER: Souidenne D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4988119 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature