Springer Monograph of the Amphisiellidae and Trachelostylidae (Ciliophora, Hypotricha): 88 (Monographiae Biologicae, 88)

The present book is a monograph about two groups of hypotrichous ciliates, namely the Amphisiellidae and the Trachelostylidae. It is the third of six volumes which - view the Hypotricha, one of the three major taxa of the spirotrichs. The first volume is about the Oxytrichidae, a rather large group, many species of which have 18 highly characteristically arranged frontal-ventral-transverse cirri and, much more importantly, a comparatively complex dorsal ciliature due to (oxytrichid) fragmen- tion of dorsal kineties during cell division (Berger 1999). The second volume deals with the Urostyloidea, which are characterised by a zigzag-arrangement of the ventral cirri (Berger 2006). Although this pattern is often very impressive, it is a relatively simple feature originating by a more or less distinct increase of the number of frontal-ventral-transverse cirri anlagen. These anlagen produce cirral pairs which are serially arranged in non-dividing specimens. Some - ers are likely astonished that the monograph on urostyloids does not include Urol- tus, a group of tailed species, which also have a distinct zigzagging cirral pattern. However, morphological and molecular data indicate that the zigzag pattern of U- leptus evolved independently, that is, convergently to that of the urostyloids. Thus, Uroleptus was excluded from the urostyloid review. A zigzag pattern is also known from some oxytrichids, for example, Neokeronopsis, Territricha, Pattersoniella, showing that this pattern evolved several times independently (Berger 1999, 2006, Foissner et al. 2004). From the Back Cover This book is the third of six volumes which review the Hypotricha, a major group of the spirotrichous ciliates. It is about the Amphisiellidae, the Trachelostylidae, and some genera of unknown position in the Hypotricha. Further, it comprises supplements to the Oxytrichidae and the Urostyloidea. The Amphisiellidae are characterised by a more or less distinct ventral file, termed amphisiellid median cirral row. They produce their frontal-ventral-transverse cirri from six anlagen, a feature taken over from the ground pattern of the Hypotricha. Trachelostyla, the eponymous type of the Trachelostylidae, is an 18-cirri hypotrich, which lacks – like the amphisiellids – dorsomarginal kineties. The lack of these kineties indicates that both taxa branch off rather early in the hypotrich tree. The core amphisiellids (e.g., Amphisiella, Spiroamphisiella) and the trachelostylids are confined to marine habitats. By contrast, the other genera reviewed in this volume (e.g., Lamtostyla, Hemisincirra) are mainly terrestrial. A total of 89 species, distributed in 27 genera, are revised in detail, that is, almost all morphological, ontogenetic, faunistic, and ecological data, scattered in almost 600 papers are summarised. With the monographs of the Oxytrichidae, the Urostyloidea, and the Amphisiellidae and Trachelostylidae the interested scientist can identify more than 410 species of hypotrichs. The treatise offers taxonomists, cell biologists, ecologists, molecular biologists, and practitioners a thorough and up-to-date overview about this highly interesting group of ciliates.