The monophylum Oxytrichidae (Ciliophora, Hypotrichia) contains freshwater-, marine-, and soil-dwelling species. Some taxa are extremely widespread in freshwater (e.g. Oxytricha, Stylonychia) or in terrestrial habitats (e.g. Gonostomum). Oxytricha and Stylonychia have been used for many molecular, ultrastructural, and genetic investigations. This is the first book since Ehrenberg's (1838) monumental work to summarize the morphological, morphogenetic, faunistic, and ecological data from the past 220 years, scattered in more than 2500 references from all over the world. One central dichotomous key leads directly to 32 genera comprising about 169 species, which are illustrated by more than 2400 figures, including original ones. Taxonomists, ecologists, limnologists, soil biologists, and cell biologists will find a list of synonyms, a discussion of nomenclatural and taxonomic problems, and a detailed morphological and ecological description, including almost all published faunistic records. This enables both the specialist and the practitioner to determine species without referring back to the original literature. The book offers the interested scientist a thorough and up-to-date revision of the oxytrichids.

This is the second book of a series treating the hypotrichs, a major part of the spirotrichous ciliates. It summarises 230 years of morphological, morphogenetic, faunistic, and ecological data, heretofore scattered in some 1,300 references around the world. The book provides taxonomists, cell biologists, and ecologists with a thorough survey supplying synonyms, nomenclature and systematics, and an extensive description of morphology and ecology, including almost all published records, for each species.

This book is the third of six volumes that review the Hypotricha, a major group of the spirotrichous ciliates. It is about the Amphisiellidae, the Trachelostylidae, and some genera of unknown position in the Hypotricha.

The present monograph is the fourth of six volumes which review the Hypotricha, a major group of the spirotrichs. The book is about the Gonostomatidae, the Kahliellidae, and some taxa of unknown position in the hypotrichs. Gonostomum was previously misclassified in the Oxytrichidae because its type species Gonostomum affine has basically an 18-cirri pattern, which is dominant in the oxytrichids. A new hypothesis, considering also molecular data, postulates that this 18-cirri pattern evolved in the last common ancestor of the hypotrichs and therefore it appears throughout the Hypotricha tree. The simple dorsal kinety pattern, composed of only three bipolar dorsal kineties, and gene sequence analyses strongly suggest that Gonostomum branches off rather early in the phylogenetic tree. Thus, the Gonostomatidae, previously synonymised with the oxytrichids, are reactivated to include the name-bearing type genus and other genera (e.g., Paragonostomum, Wallackia, Cladotricha) which have the characteristic gonostomatid oral apparatus. The Kahliellidae are a rather vague group mainly defined via the preservation of parts of the parental infraciliature. The kahliellids preliminary comprise, besides the name-bearing type genus Kahliella, genera such as Parakahliella and its African pendant Afrokahliella or the monotypic Engelmanniella. In total 68 species distributed in 21 genera and subgenera are revised. As in the previous volumes almost all morphological, morphogenetic, molecular, faunistic, and ecological data, scattered in almost 700 papers, are compiled so that the four volumes (Oxytrichidae, Urostyloidea, Amphisiellidae and Trachelostylidae, Gonostomatidae and Kahliellida) provide a detailed insight into the biology of almost 500 species of hypotrichs. The series is an up-to-date overview about this highly interesting taxon of spirotrichous ciliates mainly addressed to taxonomists, cell biologists, ecologists, molecular biologists, and practitioners.

The present monograph carefully revises the taxonomy, nomenclature, and ecology of all nominal species of spathidiids and shows that spathidiid diversity has been greatly underestimated. Based on the reinvestigation of described species with modern methods and the first description of over 50 new species, the family Spathidiidae is split into four families and 20 genera. Each species is described and figured in detail. Two identification keys are provided.