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Prostomatea: Prorodontida: Colepidae

Coleps hirtus
Nitzsch, 1817

Coleps Genus: Body form barrel-shaped; with regularly arranged ectoplasmic plates; cytostome at anterior end, surrounded by slightly longer cilia; often spinous projection at or near posterior end; one or more long caudal cilia (Kudo, 1966).
Species: 40-65 μm long; 15-20 rows of platelets; three spines (Kudo, 1966). 60 μm long, only two (?) posterior spines (How to know the protozoa, 1979).


Coleps sp., cell body 34 μm long, μm wide, x 640, Showa-machi general park, Showa town, Saitama Pref., Japan, August 2003 by Y. Tsukii
scale 50 μm scale 100 μm scale 150 μm; x 400
Coleps Coleps

Coleps hirtus Nitzsch, 1817 (or 1827?): 40-65 μm long; 15-20 rows of platelets; three spines (Kudo, 1966). 60 μm long, only two (?) posterior spines (How to know the protozoa, 1979); barrel shaped; 55-65 μm long; three spines at posterior; a single caudal cilium; each ectpasmic palte has 5 lateral teeth (Carey, 1992).

Coleps elongatus (Ehrenberg, 1830) Kahl, 1930: Cell body barrel-shaped but rather cylindrical, 65-80 μm long; a few spines at posterior end; two caudal cilia present; ectoplasmic paltes ornamented by 2 lateral teeth (Carey, 1992).

Coleps pulcher Spiegel, 1926: Cell body barrel-shaped or cylindrical; equatorial cleft absent; no caudal cilia; 80-100 μm long; both caudal and anterior spines present; peribuccal plates with small teeth; macronucleus large, spherical (Carey, 1992).


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