| Description of Holosticha gibba: Urostylid ciliate, usually 120â160 micrometers long, 30-40 micrometers wide (ratio 4:1). Bodies slightly spindle-shaped, widest in middle, narrowing at each end; dorsal surface curved upwards. Flexible, slightly contractile. 2 ellipsoid macronuclei. Contractile vacuole at left, in anterior half. AZM occupies 1/3 of body length. 12â20 transverse cirri, arranged in a J-shape; the five rightmost cirri, at the bottom of the J, are highly developed and easily distinguished; the remaining transverse cirri, running longitudinally up the left side, decrease in size toward the anterior. 3 well-developed frontal cirri, one buccal cirrus. Midventral cirri in typical zigzag pattern, running from just behind the frontal cirri to just ahead of the rearmost transverse cirri. Movements lively, restless, questing. Marine and brackish. |
