Morphology, Biometry, and Taxonomy of Freshwater and Marine Interstitial Cyphoderia (Cercozoa: Euglyphida)

  1. MILCHO TODOROV1,
  2. VASSIL GOLEMANSKY1,
  3. EDWARD A. D. MITCHELL2,3,4,
  4. THIERRY J. HEGER2,3,4,5,6

Article first published online: 17 MAR 2009

DOI: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2009.00394.x

Issue

Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology

Volume 56, Issue 3, pages 279–289, May/June 2009

Additional Information

How to Cite

TODOROV, M., GOLEMANSKY, V., MITCHELL, E. A. D. and HEGER, T. J. (2009), Morphology, Biometry, and Taxonomy of Freshwater and Marine Interstitial Cyphoderia (Cercozoa: Euglyphida). Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 56: 279–289. doi: 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2009.00394.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Institute of Zoology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria, and

  2. 2

    Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Wetlands Research Group, Lausanne, Switzerland, and

  3. 3

    École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Laboratory of Ecological Systems, Station 2, Lausanne, Switzerland, and

  4. 4

    University of Neuchâtel, Soil and Vegetation Laboratory, CH-2009 Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and

  5. 5

    Department of Zoology and Animal Biology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, and

  6. 6

    Departments of Botany and Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4

*Corresponding Author: T. J. Heger Swiss, Federal Research Institute WSL, Wetlands Research Group, Lausanne, Switzerland—Telephone number: +41 21 693 57 66; FAX number: +41 21 693 39 13; e-mail: thierry.heger@epfl.ch

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 19 MAY 2009
  2. Article first published online: 17 MAR 2009
  3. Received: 09/10/08, 12/05/08; accepted: 01/06/09

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Keywords:

  • Biometry;
  • Cyphoderia;
  • Cyphoderia amphoralis n. comb.;
  • Cyphoderia major n. comb.;
  • morphology;
  • taxonomy;
  • testate amoebae

ABSTRACT. Good taxonomy is essential for ecological, biogeographical, and evolutionary studies of any group of organisms. Therefore, we performed detailed light- and scanning electron microscopy investigations on the shell ultrastructure and biometric analyses of the morphometric variability of five freshwater and marine interstitial testate amoebae of the genus Cyphoderia (C. trochus var. amphoralis, C. ampulla, C. margaritacea var. major, C. compressa, and C. littoralis), isolated from different populations in Bulgaria and Switzerland. Our aims were (1) to clarify the morphological characteristics of these taxa, and (2) to compare the morphology of a given taxon (C. ampulla) among different locations in Bulgaria and Switzerland as a first step towards an assessment of the geographical variation within a supposedly cosmopolitan taxon. Four of the studied taxa are characterized by a well-expressed main-size class and by a small size range of all the characters and can be defined as size-monomorphic species. Based on these results, the following systematic changes are proposed: C. major (Penard, 1891) n. comb. (Syn.: C. margaritacea var. major (Penard, 1891) and C. amphoralis (Wailes & Penard, 1911) n. comb. (Syn.: C. trochus var. amphoralis (Wailes & Penard, 1911)). However, we also show significant morphological variability between the Swiss and Bulgarian populations of C. ampulla, suggesting the possible existence of more than one taxon within this species. Further studies are required to assess (1) if these two morphologically different taxa represent individual species, (2) if so, if more species exist, and if this diversity is due to limited distribution ranges (endemism) or if several closely related taxa occur together in different geographical areas.

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