First record of a new epibionts suctorian ciliate Tokophrya huangmeiensis sp.n. (Ciliophora, Phyllopharyngea) from redclaw crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus von Martens 1868

A new suctorian ciliate, Tokophrya huangmeiensis sp. n. was isolated from the carapace of redclaw crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus, during investigation of fish ciliates diversity in freshwater aquaculture of Hubei, China. The zooids of newly isolated ciliate were found aggregated into colonies on stalks of another ciliate Epistylis. The adults of this newly found species were characterized by an elongated pyramidal shaped and corrugated cell body with two fascicles of tentacles on the apical part of cell body. Stalks were hollow and transparent with longitudinal striations. The single contractile vacuole was located in the apical region and an elongated ρ-shaped macronucleus was situated along the long axis of cell body. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the subclass Suctoria is monophyletic and comprises the groups Exogenina, Evaginogenina and Endogenina, where Exogenina is the earliest branching lineage among these three groups. Tokophrya huangmeiensis sp. n. clustered with the other Tokophrya species and within the Endogenina subgroup as expected.