• Animal Systematics, Evolution and Diversity
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.115-122
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• 2011

The morphology of the two marine hypotrichous ciliates Apokeronopsis bergeri and A. ovalis, isolated from the Yellow Sea, Korea, are described based on live and protargol-impregnated specimens. It is the first time that these species have been recorded in Korea. In addition, the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene was sequenced for comparison with the public database. The genus Apokeronopsis has recently been established in the family Pseudokeronopsidae, and the two congeners of the Korean population share the following characteristics: one row of one or more buccal cirri; usually two frontoterminal cirri; midventral complex composed of two distinctly separated rows; one left and one right marginal row; number of transverse cirri, more than eight; absence of caudal cirri; two types of cortical granules. Apokeronopsis bergeri differs from A. ovalis primarily in body shape (fusiform vs. oval form), size (usually $260{\times}80{\mu}m$ vs. $160{\times}55{\mu}m$), type II cortical granules (oval vs. round shape; yellow-green vs. mostly colourless and only a few yellow-green in colour), and morphometric data (75-106 vs. 53-70 in adoral membranelles; 37-47 vs. 24-36 in frontal cirri; 9-15 vs. 1-2 in buccal cirri), as well as molecular data (2.87% of pairwise distance).