Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny of Four Trachelocercid Ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora, Karyorelictea) Found in Marine Coastal Habitats of Northern China, With Description of a New Genus, Two New Species and a New Combination

The morphology of four trachelocercid ciliates, Paratrachelocerca typica gen. nov., spec. Trachelolophos monocaryon ( Dragesco, 1965 ) comb. nov. (original combination: Tracheloraphis ), katzae and colubis Kahl, 1933 Xu et al., 2011 were studied in live protargol-stained specimens. All samples isolated from the intertidal zone sandy beaches at Qingdao, China. new genus can be distinguished other genera mainly by three circumoral kineties each composed a row dikinetids absence brosse or ciliary tuft oral cavity. detailed investigation on poorly described reveals that its infraciliature includes one uninterrupted kinety conspicuous center cavity, which is consistent with rather than . Therefore, this species transferred to as recognized combination minute brownish cortical granules 9–15 somatic kineties. small subunit (SSU) rDNA was sequenced for first time. Phylogenetic analyses SSU show clusters Apotrachelocerca arenicola group sister all trachelocercids.