Ciliates of the genus Pleuronema are a speciose and ubiquitous group. Recent studies suggest that there may be a sizable amount of undiscovered species diversity. In the present study, two new Pleuronema species have been isolated from the subtropical coastal waters of China and characterized using morphological and taxonomical methods: Pleuronema pulchra n. sp. is characterized by a body size of 75–90 × 25–40 µm in vivo , 32–...

Ciliates are morphologically diverse and highly specialized unicellular eukaryotes that constitute an important component of the microbial food web. Aspidisca Ehrenberg, 1830, is a highly speciose genus that plays key ecological roles in a wide range of environments, and its species diversity has always been a hot spot in protozoan research. In this study, we investigate the living morphology, infraciliature, silverline system...