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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Teuthophrys

Teuthophrys Chatton & Beauchamp, 1923 (ref. ID; 2013)

Class Kinetofragminophora: Subclass Gymnostomata: Order Haptorida: Family Tracheliidae (ref. ID; 2013)

[ref. ID; 2013]
Shape irregular with rounded posterior part bearing three large anterior tapering arms or neck-like processes. Posterior part of body frequently contains green zoochlorellae symbionts. Oral aperture is in the shape of a triangular slit lying at the base of the 3 arms which are lined with trichocysts on their inner surfaces. Single terminal contractile vacuole. Macronucleus moniliform or elongate and ribbon-like. Single species genus. Feeds upon rotifers.
Quote; Colin R. Curds "British and other freshwater ciliated protozoa Part I Ciliophora: Kinetofragminophora" Cambridge University Press, 1982 (ref. ID; 2013)

[ref. ID; 4613]
Often incorrectly spelled Teutophrys (for example, Corliss 1961). Teuthophrys is feminine gender, thus "africanus' has to be corrected; Teuthophrys africana nom. corr. Teuthophrys belongs, according to our investigations, to the Spathidiida Foissner & Foissner, 1988. The infraciliature and extrusome apparatus are highly reminiscent of Spathidium. Previous authors (Corliss 1979; Clement-Iftode & Versavel 1967) assigned Teuthophrys to the Dileptina, which, however, have a different infraciliature (Foissner 1997). We agree with Chatton & de Beauchamp (1924) that Teuthophrys needs a family of its own, not because of the lack of a mouth opening, as erroneously assumed by the discoverers, but due to its unique, trilobate body organization. (ref. ID; 4613)
  1. Teuthophrys trisula Chatton & Beauchamp, 1923 (ref. ID; 1335, 1619, 2571) reported year? (ref. ID; 1618, 3540)
    Syn; Triloba paradoxa Mudrezowa, 1929 (ref. ID; 3540)
  2. Teuthophrys trisulca africana Dragesco & Dragesco-Kerneis, 1986 (ref. ID; 4613 redescribed paper)
  3. Teuthophrys trisulca trisulca (Chatton & Beauchamp, 1923) (ref. ID; 4613 redescribed paper)
    Syn; Triloba paradoxa Mudrezowa, 1929 (ref. ID; 4613)

Teuthophrys trisula Chatton & Beauchamp, 1923 (ref. ID; 1335, 1619, 2571) reported year? (ref. ID; 1618, 3540)

Synonym

Triloba paradoxa Mudrezowa, 1929 (ref. ID; 3540)

Measurements

150-300 um long; length:width 3:1-2:1. (ref. ID; 1618)

Teuthophrys trisulca trisulca (Chatton & Beauchamp, 1923) (ref. ID; 4613 redescribed paper)

Synonym

Triloba paradoxa Mudrezowa, 1929 (ref. ID; 4613)

Descriptions

1) Size in vivo 150-300x50-150 um, usually around 200 um long. 2) Body campanulate, that is, the obconical, blunt trunk elongates anteriorly into three equidistant, contractile oral lobes (proboscides), which spirally curve and widely extend in freely motile, undisturbed specimens. Body shape highly fragile, that is, not only oral lobes become more or less contracted in disturbed specimens, but the campanulate trunk also changes, that is, becomes bursiform. Specimens with contracted oral lobes and bursiform trunk difficult to recognize as Teuthophrys. 3) Macronucleus in mid-trunk, tortuous and slightly monifliform, in African population dumb-bell shaped. 4) Contractile vacuole in posterior end with several excretory pores. 5) Cells of subspecies trisulca green due to numerous symbiotic algae 4-6 um across; subspecies africana without symbiotic algae. Many rod-shaped, about 6x0.8 um-sized exrusomes mainly in oral bulge. Cortex very flexible, contains narrowly spaced rows of ellipsoidal, minute (0.5x0.3 um) granules. 6) About 180 meridional ciliary rows. One lobe has short, paired cilia within three specialized ciliary rows, which extend from the top to near posterior body end (dorsal brush; clearly recognizable only after silver impregnation and in the scanning electron microscope. 7) Oral apparatus huge due to the three conspicuous proboscides (oral lobes), which originate from an unciliated, rather large, triangular oral field in the anterior trunk centre, where is an inconspicuous, conical oral basket, which opens widely during food uptake. Oral field and oral lobes lined by an inconspicuous circumoral ciliary row. 8) Swims rather slowly with widely extended "arms"; occasional or frequent reversals of direction produce short backward excursions. As it swims forward, it rotates clockwise about main body axis while the proboscides are curved counterclockwise. Unmistakable due to the curious, trilobate body organization. Thus 2 is the key character for identification. For subspecies separation, character 5 (symbiotic green algae present [T. trisulca trisulca] or absent [T. trisulca africana] must be checked. (ref. ID; 4613)

Comments

Most Teuthophrys populations have symbiotic green algae (Chatton & de Beauchamp 1923; Clement-Iftode & Versavel 1967; Mudrezowa-Wyss 1929; Wenrich 1929). A Ugandan population and our population, which we found in a floodplain soil from Australia, lack zoochorellae. The chlorotic strains maintain the symbionts in the resting cysts. Thus, the lack of chlorellae in the above mentioned population is very likely to facultative but permanent. Accordingly, we divide T. trisulca into an apochlorotic subspecies T. trisulca africana and a zoochlorellae-bearing T. trisulca trisulca. However, the apochlorotic population described by Dragesco (1972) has a rather short, almost dumb-bell shaped macronucleus, whereas it is rope-like or moniliform in or population and T. trisulca trisulca. Possibly the Dragesco population is in fact a distinct species (T. africana), and only our population is an apochlorotic subspecies to T. trisulca. But at the present state of knowledge, we prefer to split Teuthophrys into only two taxa, in as much as Dragesco's data are not very detailed. (ref. ID; 4613)