Authors: Ming Li Jianguo Wang Jinyong Zhang Zemao Gu Fei Ling Xiaoli Ke Xiaoning Gong
Publish Date: 2007/11/28
Volume: 102, Issue: 4, Pages: 605-611
Abstract
Two ciliated protozoa Balantidium sinensis Nie 1935 and Balantidium andianusi n sp were isolated from the feces of a wild Chinese giant salamander Andrias davidianus captured from the mountainous area of Shiyan Hubei Province Central China in October 2006 It is the first report of Balantidium species inhabiting Cryptobranchoidea amphibians The occurrence of B sinensis in A davidianus should be a new record because the type specimens were first discovered and named by Nie in 1935 from Rana nigromaculata and Rana plancyi For the lack of enough descriptions of taxonomic features in the previous report it was redescribed in detail and compared with Nie’s type specimens and B giganteum to complete the morphological descriptions in the present work B andianusi n sp was considered to be a new species based on its unique morphological characteristics especially the high length/width ratio of the vestibulum 81 Comparisons were also made among Balantidium species that were found from urodele amphibiansWe express our sincerest thanks to Prof WS Feng for providing help in taking the photomicrographs and Prof LX Li for the critical reading of the manuscript We are especially grateful to Prof JN Grim for his generous supply of information and “old” reprints Financial support for this study was provided by the Key ScienceTechnology Project of Hubei Province of China under Grant No 2007AA203A01
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