Loxophyllum perihoplophorum Buddenbrock, 1920 from the shoreline of an estuarine channel between Great Peconic Bay and Cold Spring Pond. Measuring 200 um in length with its slender leaf-shaped body with anterior end hooked toward dorsal side and rounded pointed posterior end, two macronuclear nodules and shallow trichocyst warts along the dorsal side and 7-10 contractile vacuoles.
Imaged in Nomarski DIC on Olympus BH2 using SPlan 20x and 40X objectives plus variable phone cropping on Samsung Galaxy S9+.
"Loxophyllum spp. are leaf-shaped pleurostomatids, and about 50 species have been described (Warren, 2015). It can be distinguished from other pleurostomatid genera by differences in perioral kineties, somatic ciliation, distribution of extrusomes, status of suture, etc. (Lynn and Small, 2002; Song et al., 2009)" (1).
This quite closely conforms to the description of L. perihoplophorum (1). The thread-like funiculus which connects the two macronuclear nodules is not visible here. The similar marine species L. rostratum has just a single posterior contractile vacuole.
Taxonomic Redescription of Loxophyllum perihoplophorum
and L. rostratum (Ciliophora: Pleurostomatida) from Korea
Se-Joo Kim, Gi-Sik Min. Anim. Syst. Evol. Divers. Vol. 31, No. 4: 277-283, October 2015 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289244148
