72 Biologia Celular- Cell Biology BC01 - REDESCRIPTION OF TINTINNOPSIS PARVULA JÖRGENSEN, 1912 (CILIOPHORA, SPIROTRICHEA, TINTINNINA), INCLUDING ITS PECULIAR LORICA ULTRASTRUCTURE Agatha, S.* Department of Organismic Biology, University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria *
[email protected] The majority of tintinnid species (Ciliophora, Spirotrichea, Tintinnina) was described, using merely lorica features. Since the considerable phenotypic plasticity of the lorica is known today, cell features are investigated to contribute to the establishment of a natural tintinnid classification. Tintinnopsis parvula Jörgensen, 1912 has apparently a cosmopolitan distribution in marine and brackish coastal waters. The species is redescribed from material collected in coastal waters of the Irish Sea near the Isle of Man (Great Britain), using live observation, protargol impregnation, and scanning electron microscopy. The species has an agglomerated obconical lorica 38–60 × 24–31 µm in size with a slightly narrowed collar 18–23 µm wide and up to 19 µm long. The somatic ciliary pattern is of the most complex type, viz., it comprises a ventral, dorsal, and posterior kinety as well as a right, left, and lateral ciliary field. The oral primordium develops apparently apokinetally posterior to the lateral ciliary field. In cultures without particles that can be agglutinated, Tintinnopsis parvula generates a hyaline lorica whose thin wall consists of an irregular network of fibres 0.04–0.3 µm thick and a few attached or interwoven particles of biotic and abiotic origin. In congeners, three further structures of the lorica matrix were documented by transmission electron micrographs: (i) a solid inner and outer layer enclosing an alveoli layer, (ii) a single solid layer, and (iii) several discontinuous layers of irregularly arranged alveoli.