摘要：AbstractAs widely accepted, Euplotid ciliates, a unique mono-cellular organisms, play important roles in ecological, environmental, evolutionary and basic biological studies. We investigate the living morphology, infraciliature and silverline system of three new marineEuplotesfound from China in this study:Euplotes bergerin. sp.,E. weissein. sp. andE. shinin. sp. The new speciesEuplotes bergeriis characterized by its dominant adoral zone of membranelles, ten frontoventral cirri, three or four caudal cirri, 12–14 dorsal kineties with 14–20 dikinetids in the mid-dorsal row, and a dorsal silverline system of the double-eurystomustype.Euplotes weisseican be recognized by its tiny size, having two conspicuous dorsal grooves, nine frontoventral cirri, one marginal cirri, six or seven dorsal kineties, ca. 10 basal bodies in the mid-dorsal row and a mix single-double silverline system.Euplotes shiniis a medium-sized form with the ciliary and silverline pattern of the well-knownE. minutabut differs from the latter mainly in SSU rDNA gene sequences and usually different-sized marginal cirri. Phylogenetic analyses based on molecular data documented the systematic positions of those new taxa and support the validity of all three organism as distinct species.
