Morphological characterization of two new species of Dicontophrya (Ciliophora: Astomatia: Contophryidae) commensal of earthworms (Oligochaeta: Annelida) of ebebda and nkolbikogo (Cameroon)
Résumé
Two new species of astomatous ciliates (Dicontophrya minus n. sp. and Dicontophrya ebebdaensis n. sp.)
endocommensal of Glossoscolecidae earthworms pertaining to the genus Alma are described using lightmicroscopy
and a combination of staining techniques (pyridinated ammoniacal siver nitrate and DAPI). Studies
reveal the existence of two distinct morphological types as evidence of morphological diversification within the
genus Dicontophrya de Puytorac and Dragesco, 1969. In the first morphological type represented by
Dicontophrya minus n. sp., the cell is ovoid (90 x 125 – 35 x 115 µm) with a ribbon like axial macronucleus
flanked with a relatively big micronucleus (6.2 µm in diameter). In the second morphological type
(Dicontophrya ebebdaensis n. sp.), the cell is elongated and wormlike (180 x 215 – 35 x 50 µm) with a nuclear
apparatus composed of a long ribbon shape macronucleus (171.1 µm), bearing in its posterior half a globulous
micronucleus. In the two cases cells bear in the anterior end a depression in which lodges a skeletal apparatus
build in the same plan of organization (a modified V shaped skeletal branch bearing about 7 skeletal fibers) that
characterize the genus