Reconsideration of the taxonomy of the marine ciliate Neobakuella aenigmatica Moon et al., 2019 (Protozoa, Ciliophora, Hypotrichia)

The morphology and divisional morphogenesis in a Chinese population of Neobakuella aenigmatica Moon et al., 2019 are reinvestigated. The body size, number and arrangement of parabuccal cirri and development of nuclear nodules in this population are discussed in comparison with closely related genera. The 18S rRNA gene sequence of the Chinese population is identical to that of a Korean population, supporting a distant relationship between N. aenigmatica and the cluster of N. flava and Apobakuella fusca. We deduce that this may be caused by the differences in the pattern of the parabuccal cirri and the number of parabuccal rows which are important for the phylogeny of Bakuella-like species.