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Rigidohymena inquieta (Stokes, 1887) Berger, 2011 (Figure 1 A���L; Table 1) This species has been long considered as a member of Cyrtohymena, until Berger (2011) transferred it to the genus Rigidohymena because of its rigid body without cortical granules. Since previous reports contained some misobservations and conflicts between populations, redescription and an improved diagnosis are needed. Improved diagnosis: Body 95���130 �� 30���50 ��m in vivo. Pellicle rigid without cortical granules. Two macronuclear nodules. One contractile vacuole located in anterior 1 / 2 of body length near left margin. Adoral zone occupies 40 %��� 50 % of body length and composed of 37���50 membranelles. Marginal rows do not confluent posteriorly containing 13���24 on left and 18���26 on right. Eight fronto-ventral and five transverse cirri. Four or five ventral cirri. Six dorsal kineties and three caudal cirri. Morphogenesis is typical Oxytricha- pattern. Deposition of voucher slides: One voucher slide (with registry number TWJ��� 20140427) was deposited in the Laboratory of Protozoology, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. Morphological description of Chinese population: In vivo 110���130 ��m �� 30���50 ��m, body elliptical in outline, with anterior end broadly rounded, length: width ratio approximately 2.5: 1 (Fig. 1 A, F���H). Buccal field about 40 % of body length (Fig. 1 A, G). Collar part of adoral zone of membranelles extends to dorsal side (Fig. 1 A, J). Pellicle firm without cortical granules. Cytoplasm contains numerous crystals of different size (Fig. 1 A, H). Two ellipsoidal macronuclear nodules, about 45 �� 25 ��m in size, located at the left of cell mid-line, with spherical nucleoli scattered in. 2���4 micronucleus located around macronuclear nodules. Single contractile vacuole about 13 ��m across, located at the left of cell mid-line, slightly in the front of mid-body, pulsing at about 14 s intervals (Fig. 1 G). Body grayish in appearance when observed at low magnifications, usually containing small lipid droplets and cytoplasmic granules 1���5 ��m in diameter (Fig. 1 A, G, H). Cysts, spherical, about 50 ��m across, with contractile vacuole contracting as usual. (Fig. 1 K). Locomotion by swimming and rotating about its longitudinal axis moderately fast, or slowly crawling on bottom of Petri dishes or on debris. Paroral membrane distinctly curved in anterior half (Fig. 1 B, L). Three frontal cirri in life about 12���19 ��m long. One buccal cirrus, located at the inflexion of paroral membrane. Three postoral ventral cirri located behind buccal vertex. Five or six transverse cirri, about 20 ��m in life, projecting beyond posterior body margin by 2 / 3 of their length. Right marginal cirri began at the level of penultimate fronto-ventral cirri. Both two marginal rows ended terminally and almost confluent posteriorly (Fig. 1 B, L). Invariably three caudal cirri are about 17 ��m long in life. Six dorsal kineties (DK), DK 1���3 bipolar, DK 4 commencing posterior, DK 5 stretching to posterior 1 / 2 of cell and DK 6 short (Fig. 1 C). A late stage of reorganization observed: new dorsal kineties formed in typical Oxytricha -pattern, i. e., DKA 1���3 developed intrakinetally within parental structure, while DK 4 formed by fragmentation of DKA 3; three caudal cirri formed at the end of DK 1, 2 and 4; two dorsomarginal kineties (DK 5 and 6) formed by two anlagen (DMA) that develop de novo at anterior right of right marginal row (Fig. 1 D, E). Remarks: Chinese population corresponds well with previous studies in terms of living morphology, especially the body size and rigid pellicle without cortical granules. However, the infraciliature shows some conflicts between populations. Both original reports of Stokes (1886) and Groli��re (1975) draw four ventral cirri, which Berger (1999) considered as a typical character of this species. While the organism reported by Gu and Zhang (1992), a highly possible synonym of C. inquieta considered also by Berger (1999), as well as present population, has constantly five ventral cirri. Thus, we inclined to accept the variation in number of ventral cirri as population dependent. Depending on our observations and the work of Gu and Zhang (1992), there should be six dorsal kineties and three caudal cirri following typical Oxytricha- pattern during ontogenesis. ��apar (2007) also reported a population of C. inquieta from Anatolia with only three ventral cirri, but the infraciliature is possibly unreliable for the reason that the typical Cyrtohymena -like paroral membrane was not shown in his drawing. R. inquieta thus share the same infraciliature with its congener R. candens and differs from the latter mainly in smaller body length ( 150 ��m). Although body size is not a good diagnostic character, the discrepancy of their SSU rRNA gene sequences is strong support to separate the two species. Accordingly, Cyrtohymena candens var. depressa (Gell��rt, 1942) Foissner, 1989 is synonymy of R. inquieta, since tts rigid body and Cyrtohymena -like undulating membrane demonstrate it as a member of Rigidohymena, and the small body size (100���120 ��m) indicates it is a population of R. inquieta rather than R. candens (Berger 1999; Chen et al. 2013). Characters Species Min Max Mean SD CV n Body length Rig. 91 120 100.6 8.3 8.3 16 Pat. 297 480 349.8 53.2 15.2 13 Not. 113 179 143.4 19.6 13.6 18 Cyr. 195 318 250.5 40.0 16.0 10 Body width Rig. 40 73 51.3 7.6 14.9 16 Pat. 151 270 200.6 35.6 17.8 13 Not. 37 81 53.1 12.3 23.1 18 Cyr. 90 150 120.5 20.2 16.8 10 Buccal field length Rig. 34 53 40.8 5.1 12.5 16 Pat. 123 197 158.0 23.5 14.9 10 Not. 39 61 47.8 7.0 14.7 16 Cyr. 65 110 87.0 14.6 16.8 10 DE-Value Rig. 15 35 22.9 5.6 24.6 14 Pat. 38 65 50.3 7.6 15.1 10 Not. 10 20 15.7 2.5 15.8 15 Cyr. 23 40 30.0 5.4 18.2 10 Membranelles width Rig. 7 11 9.2 1.2 13.0 16 Pat. 32 41 36.1 3.7 10.2 10 Not. 6 11 8.4 1.1 13.7 16 Cyr. 13 20 16.0 2.6 16.6 10 Adoral membranelles, Rig. 30 45 36.8 4.9 13.4 17 number Pat. 44 78 63.7 9.2 14.4 12 Not. 36 44 41.2 2.7 6.6 15 Cyr. 44 60 51.5 5.5 10.6 10 Macronuclei length Rig. 11 20 15.9 3.2 20.3 19 Pat. 15 25 19.8 3.2 16.2 10 Not. 21 37 29.7 3.8 12.9 18 Cyr. 14 22 19.3 0.8 12.3 10 Macronuclei, number Rig. 2 2 2.0 0 0 16 Pat. 21 35 27.4 3.8 13.7 17 Not. 2 3 2.1 0.3 13.0 14 Cyr. 2 2 2.0 0 0 10 Left marginal cirri, Rig. 17 24 20.0 2.1 10.9 15 number Pat. 13 37 29.2 6.1 20.7 12 Not. 33 48 40.8 4.5 10.9 13 Cyr. 32 47 40.3 4.0 10.0 10 Right marginal cirri, Rig. 18 26 20.6 1.9 9.1 15 ......continued on the next page Characters Species Min Max Mean SD CV n number Pat. 14 36 29.6 5.6 18.8 12 Not. 35 46 41.7 3.2 7.7 15 Cyr. 28 41 36.5 3.9 10.6 10 Frontal cirri, number Rig. 3 3 3.0 0 0 15 Pat. 6 9 7.5 0.8 11.3 10 Not. 3 3 3.0 0 0 15 Cyr. 3 3 3.0 0 0 10 Ventral cirri, number Rig. 10 10 10.0 0 0 15 Pat. 18 27 21.3 3.0 14.0 10 Not. 10 10 10.0 0 0 15 Cyr. 9 10 9.9 0.1 3.2 10 Transverse cirri, Rig. 5 6 5.1 0.4 6.9 15 number Pat. 8 11 10.3 0.9 8.3 13 Not. 5 5 5.0 0 0 15 Cyr. 5 6 5.1 0.3 6.2 10 Dorsal kineties, Rig. 6 6 - - - 2 number Pat. 14 15 14.9 0.3 2.1 10 Not. 6 6 6.0 0 0 15 Cyr. 6 12 7.5 1.0 13.0 10, Published as part of Yang, Caiting, Liu, An, Xu, Yusen, Xu, Yuan, Fan, Xinpeng, Al-Farraj, Saleh A., Ni, Bing & Gu, Fukang, 2015, Phylogenetic positions of four hypotrichous ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora) based on SSU rRNA gene, with notes on their morphological characters, pp. 451-463 in Zootaxa 4000 (4) on pages 454-455, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4000.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/245715, {"references":["Berger, H. (2011) Monograph of the Gonostomatidae and Kahliellidae (Ciliophora, Hypotricha). Monographiae biologicae, 90, 1 - 741.","Groliere. (1975) Descriptions de quelques cilises hypotriches des tourbieres a sphaignes et des etendues d'eau acides. Protistologica, 11, 481 - 498.","Berger, H. (1999) Monograph of the Oxytrichidae (Ciliophora, Hypotricha). Monographiae biologicae, 78, 1 - 1080.","Gu, F. & Zhang, Z. (1992) The comparison between asexual reproduction and physiological reorganization of Oxytricha platystoma. Zoological Research, 13, 375 - 380. [in Chinese with English summary]","Capar, S. (2007) Hypotrich ciliates (Protozoa: Ciliophora) of Gelingullu Dam Lake, Yozgat-Turkey. Journal of biological chemistry, 35, 45 - 56.","Lv, Z., Chen, L., Chen, L. Y., Shao, C., Miao, M. & Warren, A. (2013) Morphogenesis and molecular phylogeny of a new freshwater ciliate, Notohymena apoaustralis n. sp. (Ciliophora, Oxytrichidae). Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 60, 455 - 466. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1111 / jeu. 12053"]}

Yang, Caiting, Liu, An, Xu, Yusen, Xu, Yuan, Fan, Xinpeng, Al-Farraj, Saleh A., Ni, Bing, Gu, Fukang (2015): Phylogenetic positions of four hypotrichous ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora) based on SSU rRNA gene, with notes on their morphological characters. Zootaxa 4000 (4): 451-463, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4000.4.4

Cyrtohymena (Cyrtohymenides) australis Foissner, 2004 (Figure 4 A���G; Table 1) Foissner (1995) reported the two populations from Peru (the type) and Costa Rica respectively. The living morphology and infraciliature are fairly clear, thus, only brief redescription was documented here. Morphological description of Chinese population: Cells in vivo 240-300 �� 90-130 ��m, very flexible (Fig. 4 A, B). Buccal area occupying 37 % of body length. Cortical granules yellowish to green in color, about 1 ��m across, present on both sides, arranged in groups near ventral cirri and dorsal kineties, also scattering irregularly in other parts of pellicle (Fig. 4 C). Contractile vacuole located near left margin and in anterior 1 / 2 of body, about 30 ��m when fully extended. Two macronuclei each about 36 �� 20 ��m in vivo. Cyst about 75 ��m in diameter, spherical, with smooth surface (Fig. 4 D). Typically 8: 5: 5 ventral cirri arrangement, but six transverse cirri present in single specimen examined. Transverse cirri about 45 ��m long, extending slightly beyond posterior body end (Fig. 4 F). Marginal cilia about 20 ��m long in vivo. 7���12 dorsal kineties arranged irregularly. A morphogenetic cell of late stage was found and showing four dorsal marginal and three dorsal primordia (Fig. 4 E, F, G). Always three caudal cirri. Remarks: Chinese population corresponds well with two previous populations (Foissner 1995) in terms of living morphology and infraciliature, thus, the identification was acceptable. Foissner (2004) established the subgenus Cyrtohymenides to include cyrtohymenids with larger body size and more than three dorsomarginal kineties, up to now, including C. (C.) aspoecki, C. (C.) australis, and C. (C.) shii. Singh et al. (2013) improved the diagnosis to include more characteristic features, i. e., slightly large number of frontal-ventral-transverse cirri, marginal rows not confluent posteriorly, and multiple fragmentation of the third dorsal kinety during ontogenesis. Though, Cyrtohymena australis Foissner, 1995 was transferred to the subgenus by Foissner (2004), the multiple fragmentation of dorsal kinety 3 is still unconfirmed for the reason of unavailability of the complete ontogenesis process of this species., Published as part of Yang, Caiting, Liu, An, Xu, Yusen, Xu, Yuan, Fan, Xinpeng, Al-Farraj, Saleh A., Ni, Bing & Gu, Fukang, 2015, Phylogenetic positions of four hypotrichous ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora) based on SSU rRNA gene, with notes on their morphological characters, pp. 451-463 in Zootaxa 4000 (4) on page 458, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4000.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/245715, {"references":["Foissner, W. (2004) Some new ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) from an Austrian floodplain soil, including a giant, red \" flagship \", Cyrtohymena (Cyrtohymenides) aspoecki nov. subgen., nov. spec. Denisia, 13, 369 - 382.","Foissner, W. (1995) Tropical protozoan diversity: 80 ciliate species (Protozoa, Ciliophora) in a soil sample from a tropical dry forest of Costa Rica, with descriptions of four new genera and seven new species. Archiv fur Protistenkunde, 145, 37 - 79. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1016 / S 0003 - 9365 (11) 80300 - 3","Singh, J., Kamra, K. & Sapra, G. R. (2013) Morphology, ontogenesis, and molecular phylogeny of an Indian population of Cyrtohymena (Cyrtohymenides) shii, including remarks on the subgenus. European Journal of Protistology, 49, 283 - 297. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.1016 / j. ejop. 2012.08.009"]}

Pattersoniella vitiphila Foissner, 1987 (Figure 2 A���G; Table 1) This species was originally described in terms of both living morphology and infraciliature by Foissner (1987). Chinese population shows some variation in morphometric data, thus a redescription was supplied here. Morphological description of Chinese population: Cells in vivo 310-360 �� 140-180 ��m, broadly elliptical in outline, with ratio of length to width approximately 2: 1 (Fig. 2 A, B). Body inflexible, but very fragile when observed under microscope on a slide. Cortical granules lacking. Cell dark brown in color, different sized food vacuoles containing algae or small ciliates. Buccal field about 2 / 5 ��� 1 / 2 of body length. Basal fibers of cirri and membranelles of adoral zone detectable in vivo (Fig. 2 C, D) and after staining (Fig. 2 E). 21���35 ellipsoidal macronuclear nodules, each about 20 �� 15 ��m in size, located in the cell mid-line irregularly. One contractile vacuole detectable at anterior third and near dorsal side, with diameter about 27 ��m (Fig. 2 B). A forming cyst observed, spherical, about 100 ��m across. Locomotion by swimming moderately fast or crawling relatively slow on bottom of Petri dishes or on debris. Ventral infraciliature as shown in Fig. 2 G. Frontal cirri and buccal cirri distinctly enlarged, about 37 ��m long. Transverse cirri, about 35 ��m in length, arranged roughly in a J-shaped row in posterior region of cell, only posterior-most reaching posterior end of body. Length of marginal cirri about 20���24 ��m. Invariably three caudal cirri. Dorsal cilia arranged altogether about 15 kineties on average, only three or four of them about body length. Two associated fibers of each dorsal dikinetid visible after staining, about 14 ��m long (Fig. 2 F). Remarks: The original population from Fiji Island has 13���18 (14.6 on average) ventral cirri in normal specimens and 18���20 (18.7 on average) cirri in giant specimens that present after culture. Our population has 18��� 27 (21.3 on average) ventral cirri and larger size which shows the similarities with the giant specimens of original population (Foissner 1987). The number of cirri might be closely related to the body size., Published as part of Yang, Caiting, Liu, An, Xu, Yusen, Xu, Yuan, Fan, Xinpeng, Al-Farraj, Saleh A., Ni, Bing & Gu, Fukang, 2015, Phylogenetic positions of four hypotrichous ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora) based on SSU rRNA gene, with notes on their morphological characters, pp. 451-463 in Zootaxa 4000 (4) on page 456, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4000.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/245715, {"references":["Foissner, W. (1987) Neue und wenig bekannte hypotriche und colpodide Ciliaten (Protozoa: Ciliophora) aus Boden und Moosen. Zoologische Beitraege, 31, 187 - 282."]}

Notohymena australis Foissner & O��� Donoghue, 1990 (Figure 3 A���G; Table 1) This species was well described by original report, thus only brief redescription based on new populations was supplied. Morphological description of Chinese population: Body 110-130 �� 30-50 ��m, long elliptical in outline, with length: width ratio approximately 4: 1 in vivo (Fig. 3 A, B). Body flexible but not contractile. Cortical granules yellow or orange, spherical, about 0.4 ��m across (Fig. 3 C, D), and they arranged mainly along cirral rows and dorsal kineties (Fig. 3 B, C, E). Buccal field about 46 % of body length (Fig. 3 F). Bases of largest membranes in life about 10 ��m. Two ellipsoidal macronuclear nodules, 15���33 �� 8���11 ��m in size. One contractile vacuole about 20 ��m across, located left of cell mid-line, slightly in front of mid-body. Cytoplasm usually containing small lipid droplets with size about 1���7 ��m in diameter (Fig. 3 A, B). Locomotion by swimming rotating about its longitudinal axis moderately fast or relatively slow crawling on bottom of Petri dishes or on debris. Paroral bends to left and has a hooked distal (Fig. 3 F, G). Cirri on ventral side arranged in typical 8: 5: 5 pattern. Frontal cirri is about 12���15 ��m long in life, transverse cirri, about 18 ��m. Two marginal rows converging posterior (Fig. 3 G). Six dorsal kineties, cilia about 5 ��m long; leftmost 3 (dorsal kineties 1, 2, and 3) of body length; fourth and fifth dorsal kineties terminate below the mid-body respectively; rightmost dorsal kinety (dorsal kinety 6), very short, only composed of 2���5 dikinetids. 7���10 caudal cirri located at posterior body margin and arranged in three rows, located at the posterior end of dorsal kineties 1, 2, and 4 respectively (Fig. 3 G). Remarks: This species was recorded successively from Australia, Bavaria, Korea and Japan. Our population corresponds well with previous reports (Foissner & O��� Donoghue, 1990; Choon & Shin, 2010; Hu & Yasushi, 2015) in terms of cyst, locomotion, cortical granules and marginal cirri, and differs from them in larger adoral zone about 46 % (vs. 38 % in Australian population, 36 % in Korean population, 37 % in Japanese population) and bases of largest membranes in life about 10 ��m (vs. 7 ��m in Australian population, 8 ��m in Japanese population)., Published as part of Yang, Caiting, Liu, An, Xu, Yusen, Xu, Yuan, Fan, Xinpeng, Al-Farraj, Saleh A., Ni, Bing & Gu, Fukang, 2015, Phylogenetic positions of four hypotrichous ciliates (Protista, Ciliophora) based on SSU rRNA gene, with notes on their morphological characters, pp. 451-463 in Zootaxa 4000 (4) on page 457, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4000.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/245715, {"references":["Kwon, C. B. & Shin, M. K. (2010) Description of Two Oxytrichid Ciliates (Ciliophora: Sporadotrichida: Oxytrichidae) Newly Reported from Korea. Korean Journal of Systematic Zoology, 26, 307 - 316. http: // dx. doi. org / 10.5635 / KJSZ. 2010.26.3.307","Hu, X. & Kusuoka, Y. (2015) Two oxytrichids from the ancient Lake Biwa, Japan, with notes on morphogenesis of Notohymena australis (Ciliophora, Sporadotrichida). Acta Protozoologica, 54, 107 - 122."]}

In order to reveal the differentiation characteristics of organelles of ciliates under different physiological status, the cellular ultrastructure of Urostyla grandis was studied by transmission electron microscopy. In the resting cells most ciliary shafts, kinetosomes and sub-pellicle microtubules were resorbed, and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) disappeared with the autophagocytosis taking place within the cytoplasm. As well, the nuclear matrix of the macronucleus was extruded into the cytoplasm, forming pseudopodia-like structures with large quantities of heterochromatin (CH) attached to the inner nuclear membrane. During excystment, membraneous structures developed and gradually increased in number to form the ER. Autophagic vacuoles (AVs) appeared containing mitochondria, paraglycogen particles (PGP), membranous structures, etc. Moreover, the number of nucleoli decreased with the chromatin, condensing in parallel with the process of recombination. Based on these observations, it could be concluded that the de-differentiation of microtubular organelles and the changes occurring in macronuclei in the resting Urostyla grandis, as well as the differentiation of cytoplasmic organelles, digestion by AVs, and the recombination of chromatin during excystment, are not similar to events that occur in non-kinetosome-resorbing cysts (NKR).