Description of Odontochlamys convexa
(
anglais
)
fourni par BioPedia
CIliate, 30-40 x 20-30 microns. Not contractile but very flexible. Oval, anterior end bluntly, posterior end broadly rounded. Dorsal hump very conspicuous, having many irregular furrows and prominent anterior slope, distinctly projecting rather deeply depressed postoral ventral surface. Preoral area about 3:1, postoral portion inconspicuously flattened. Macronucleus in posterior half, ellipsoid, contains spherical chromatin bodies surrounding hyaline centre. Micronucleus spherical, in 60 % of specimens rather distant from macronucleus. 2 contractile vacuoles, the upper pore close below oral opening between 1 st and 2nd inner kinety of right field, the other near posterior end between 3rd and 4th inner kinety of left field. Cytopharyngeal opening in median of cell. Cytopharyngeal rods toothed, form narrow (3-4 microns, wide at distal end), dorsally and backwards directed funnel; distal half of rods 8-15 microns long, proximal portion very thin, in 2 out of 13 specimens cornucopia-shaped. Cytoplasm colourless. Probably feeds on bacteria. Movement slowly gliding, thigmotactic, attaches to soil particles. Cilia of ventral side about 5 microns long. Infraciliature very similar to that of other species of genus, differing mainly in morphometric characters. Left ciliary field remarkably small, thus leaving wide gap between posterior ends of right and left ciliary field. Dorsal brush at anterior margin of cell, cilia about 6 microns long and remarkable widely spaced.
