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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 posterior spines (Kudo, 1966). 60 μm long, only two (?) posterior spines (How to know the protozoa, 1979).


Coleps hirtus Nitzsch, cell body 58 μm long, 29 μm wide, spines 4 μm long, x 640, Kasai Seaside Park, Edogawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan, November 2001 by Y. Tsukii
scale 31 μm scale 63 μm scale 94 μm; x 640
Coleps Coleps Coleps 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). (Müller) from Kudo, 1966
Nitzsch, 1827 from Carey, 1992
Nitzsch, 1817 from Colin R. Curds "British and other freshwater ciliated protozoa Part I Ciliophora: Kinetofragminophora"Cambridge University Press, 1982.


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