Licnophora


Licnophora is a genus of ciliates in the family Licnophoridae. They typically have an hourglass-like shape and live as ectocommensals on marine animals.

Description

The cell body of most Licnophora species is shaped like an hourglass. The oral region is on one end, and is surrounded by specialized cilia. The other end contains a circular attachment disk that is used to attach to the substratum, a feature unique to licnophorids, although they can also be free-swimming.
Licnophora are ectocommensals, living attached to different kinds of marine animals, including gastropods, bivalves, polychaetes, and seahorses. One species was found attached to algae. Heavy infections of Licnophora auerbachii have been known to damage the eyes of the scallop Chlamys opercularis, by abrading the animal tissue when they attach to it.

Systematics

The genus Licnophora was first defined by René-Édouard Claparède in 1867. He transferred the species Trichodina auerbachii Cohn, 1866 to this genus, and also named a new species L. cohnii in honor of Ferdinand Cohn. The genus was formerly classified as a heterotrich. More recent classification systems place it within the Spirotrichea, because of evidence from molecular phylogenetics and some morphological features of the macronucleus. However, another analysis has found that it is an "isolated branch" within the subphylum Intramacronucleata that is most closely related to the Spirotrichea, Armophorea, and Clevelandellidae.

Etymology

The name means "fan-bearer".

List of species

As of 2000, eleven species of Licnophora have been described: