Protistology 11 (4), 196–214 (2017) |
Morphometrics of three hyalosphenid testate amoebae from the Velež Lake region, East Herzegovina |
University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology and Ecology, Novi Sad, Serbia | Submitted October 20, 2017 | Accepted November 8, 2017 | Summary Taxonomy of hyalosphenid testate amoebae at the species level is mainly based on the shape and size of their shells. In this paper, the morphometric data for Padaungiella lageniformis (member of the family Padaungiellidae), Nebela minor and Porosia bigibbosa (members of the family Hyalospheniidae s.s.) from the Velež Lake region (East Herzegovina) are presented. The analyzed population of P. lageniformis contains specimens with shell length between 83 and 112 µm, with the arithmetic mean of 99.07 µm. These data support synonymization of P. wailesi (shell length 75-100 µm) and P. lageniformis s.s. (shell length 100-160 µm). Recently, the wide taxonomic concept of N. tincta has been proposed based on molecular and morphological analyses conducted on a small number of specimens. This concept implies synonymization of N. minor with N. tincta, but morphometric analysis of N. minor presented here does not support the wide taxonomic concept of N. tincta. In addition, morphometric analysis of P. bigibbosa has shown that it is a much more diversified taxon than previously thought. These investigations have shown that further morphometric studies of hyalosphenid testate amoebae are necessary for the clarification of their taxonomic relations.
Key words: Arcellinida, Hyalospheniidae, Padaungiellidae, protists, taxonomy, testate amoebae
Address for correspondence: Stefan Luketa. Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of Novi Sad, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 2, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia; e-mail: stefan.luketa@dbe.uns.ac.rs |
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