Protistology 7 (2) 63–70 (2012) |
Biometry of three rare testate amoebae species (Arcellinida and Euglyphida) from freshwater and moss biotopes in Bulgaria |
University of Shumen “Ep. K. Preslavsky”, Faculty of natural sciences, Shumen, Bulgaria Summary Euglypha filifera var. cylindracea Playfair, 1917, Difflugiella patinata Schonborn, 1965, and Cryptodifflugia sacculus Penard, 1902, collected in different biotopes at the Durankulak Lake and Golden Sands Nature Park in the Northeastern Bulgaria, are redescribed. A detailed morphometrical analysis of variability in natural populations of these testate amoebae is made. The analysis of variation coefficients shows that the most stable characters in the populations are breadth/length ratio, shell breadth and shell length. For all these taxa, high values of correlation coefficients between the length and the breadth of the shell were noted. Diameter of aperture is very often weakly correlated with other parameters. The taxa studied are characterized by a well-expressed main-size class and by a small size range of the characters, and can be defined as size-monomorphic species. Euglypha filifera var. cylindracea is reported for the first time in the Bulgarian protozoan fauna. Key words: testate amoebae, variability, morphometry
Address for correspondence: Rositsa Davidova. University of Shumen “Ep. K. Preslavsky”, Faculty of natural sciences, 115 Universitetska Str., 9700 Shumen, Bulgaria; e-mail: davidova_sh@yahoo.com |
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