Abstract
In samples of activated sludge obtained from a wastewater treatment plant located in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil, we discovered Parentocirrus brasiliensis sp. n., a new species of spirotrichous ciliate characterized as: Parentocirrus measuring about 110 x 75μm, body outline elliptical, with 2–3 buccal cirri and 3–5 posterior frontal cirri of the same size, and 2–4 postperistomial cirri. Nuclear apparatus composed of 4–6 macronuclear nodules and 1–6 micronuclei. Dorsal side shows 6 (rarely 5) kineties, with very few scattered kinetids between kineties 3 and 4. The new species differs from P. hortualis mainly in the configuration of dorsal kineties, the relative position of the posterior frontal cirri, the average number of macronuclear nodules, the number of postperistomial cirri, and the average body size.
References
Al-shawani, S. M. & Horan, N. J. (1991) The use of protozoa to indicate changes in the performance of activated sludge plants. Water Research, 25, 633–638.
Berger, H. (1999) Monograph of the Oxytrichidae (Ciliophora: Hypotrichia). Kluwer Academic Prublishers, The Netherlands, 1082 pp.
Berger, H. & Foissner, W. (1997) Cladistic Relationships and Generic Characterization of Oxytrichid Hypotrichs (Protozoa, Ciliophora). Archiv für Protistenkund, 148, 125–155.
Berger, J. & Hatzidimitriou, G. (1978) Multivariate morphometric analyses of demic variation in Ancistrum mytili (Ciliophora: Scuticociliatida) commensal in two Mytilid Pelecypods. Protistologica, 14(2), 133–153.
Curds, C.R. (1992) Protozoa and the water industry. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 122pp.
Curds, C.R. & Cockburn, A. (1970) Protozoa in biological sewage treatment Processes II. Protozoa as indicators in the activated sludge process. Water Research, 4, 237–249.
Dieckmann, J. (1995) An improved protargol impregnation for ciliates yielding reproducible results. European Journal of Protistology, 31, 372–382.
Ehrenberg, C. G. (1838) Die Infusionsthierchen als Vollkommene Organismen. Liepzig, 612 pp.
Eigner, P. (1995) Divisional morphogenesis in Deviata abbrevescens nov. gen., nov. spec., Neogeneia hortualis nov. gen., nov. spec., and Kahliella simplex (Horváth) Corliss and redefinition of the Kahliellidae (Ciliophora, Hypotrichida). European Journal of Protistology, 31, 341–366.
Fenchel, T. (1987) The ecology of the protozoa: the biology of free-living phagotrophic protists. Springer Verlag, New York, 197 pp.
Kattar, M. R. (1970) Estudo dos protozoários ciliados psamófilos do litoralBrasileiro. Boletim de Zoologia e Biologia Marinha, 1(27), 123–206.
Silva, S. B. A. da & Silva-Neto, I. D. da (2001) Morfologia dos protozoários ciliados em um reator experimental de tratamento de esgoto por processo de lodos ativados. Revista Brasileira de Zoociências, 3(2), 203–229.
Sokal, R. R., & Rohlf, F. J. (1981) Biometry. Freeman, San Francisco, 859 pp.
Tuffrau, M. (1979) Une nouvelle famille d'hypotriches, Kahliellidae n. fam., et ses consequences dans la repartition des Stichotrichina. Transactions of the American Microscopical Society, 98, 521–528.
Voss, H. J. (1997) Morphology and morphogenesis of Parentocirrus hortualis nov. gen., nov. spec.: a new genus within the redefined family Kahliellidae sensu Eigner 1995 (Ciliophora, Hypotrichida). European Journal of Protistology, 33, 30–47.