Eugene B. Small, John Heisler, James Sniezak and Thomas M. Iliffe (1986).
Glauconema bermudensis, a troglobitic ciliophoran from Bermudian marine caves.
Stygologia
2:167-179.
Glauconema bermudense n. sp. is
herein described from protargol stained preparations of cultured cells
originally recovered from a dead fish resting on the floor of the interior
of Green Bay Cave and also recovered from fish baited traps at other sites
in Green Bay Cave as well as sites in Church Cave, Wonderland Cave, and
Tuckers Town Cave — all caves containing marine waters. Further study of
this Glauconema sp. has revealed its presence only in interior cave
waters and never external to or at the entrances of the caves. The ciliate
undergoes a tomont to tomite morphogenetic transformation when well fed and
in light. Cultured tomites, when placed in darkness with freshly bacterized
canned tuna fish revert to the trophont morphotype. These criteria lead the
authors to consider this species a true protistan troglobite, the first
record of such an occurrence for marine ciliate protists.
Eugene B. Small,
Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, College Park,
MD 20742 - Thomas M. Iliffe, Department of Marine Biology, Texas A&M University at
Galveston, P.O. Box 1675, Galveston, Texas 77553, USA.
E-mail: iliffet@tamug.edu
Keywords: anchialine, caves, Bermuda, protozoa, ciliates, Glauconema.
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