Abstract
Isolates of Mesanophrys cf. carcini Small & Lynn in Aescht, 2001 and Parauronema cf. longum Song, 1995 infected a freshwater mussel (bleufer, Potamilus purpuratus (Lamarck, 1819)) collected from Chewacla Creek, Auburn, Alabama, USA. Free-living specimens of Metanophrys similis (Song, Shang, Chen & Ma, 2002) 2002, Uronema marinum Dujardin, 1841, Uronemita filificum Kahl, 1931, Pleuronema setigerum Calkins, 1902 and Pseudocohnilembus hargisi Evans & Thompson, 1964, were collected from estuarine waters near Orange beach, Alabama. Based on observations of living and silver-impregnated cells, we provide redescriptions as well as comparisons with original descriptions for the seven species. We also comment on the geographic distributions of known populations of these aquatic ciliate species and provide a table reporting some aquatic scuticociliates of the eastern US Gulf Coast.
Highlights
Little information is available on the biodiversity and distribution of parasitic and free-living ciliates in Alabama’s streams, rivers, and coastal environments, there are many reports about distribution and morphology of freshwater mussel Potamilus purpuratus Lamarck, 1819 (Hopkins 1934; Haag et al 1993; Haggerty et al 2005; Gangloff et al 2006; Garner et al 2009; McElwain & Bullard 2014)
We provide supplemental morphological information on seven nominal scuticociliate species based on microscopy of living and silver-impregnated specimens collected in Alabama
Two parasitic species isolated from freshwater mussel Potamilus purpuratus
Summary
Ciliates of the subclass Scuticociliatia are common inhabitants of freshwater, brackish, and marine environments (Foissner & Wilbert 1981; Parker 1981; Wiackowski et al 1999; Wang et al 2008a, 2008b, 2009; Foissner et al 2009; Gao et al 2010, 2012a, 2012b, 2013; Foissner et al 2014; Mallo et al 2014; Ofelio et al 2014), wherein they may be free-living, commensals, benign symbionts, or likely pathogens of fishes and invertebrates (Puytorac et al 1974; Kaneshiro & Holz 1976; Al-Marzouk & Azad 2007; Castro et al 2014; Gao et al 2016, 2016; Gao & Katz 2014; Zhan et al 2014; Pan et al 2016) Because of their small size and the high degree of similarity in the infraciliature, many scuticociliates are identified based upon a combination of characters observed in vivo and after silver staining (Foissner et al 1994; Song & Wilbert 2002; Ma et al 2004; Miao et al 2008, 2009; Wilbert & Song 2008; Song et al 2009; Fan et al 2011a, 2011b, 2014; Lobban et al 2011; Pan et al 2011, 2013, 2015a, 2015b, 2015c, 2016).
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