Syltodinium listii

Super Group: 
Alveolata
Phylum: 
Dinophyta
Class: 
Dinophyceae
Genus: 
Syltodinium
Species: 
listii
Authority: 
Drebes 1988

Diagnosis

Diagnosis_Genus: Syltodinium Drebes 1988. Ectoparasitic dinoflagellate on eggs of planktonic crustaceans and rotifers. Dinospores gymnodinoid. Food uptake phagotrophically by a peduncle. After feeding, the trophont detaches from the host and transforms into a palmelloid multiplication stage, embedded in a gelatinous envelope. Dinospores are formed by repeated binary fission.
Diagnosis_Species: Syltodinium listii Drebes 1988. Ectoparasitic on eggs of marine copepods (Temora longicornis, Acartia sp., Pseudocalanus elongatus) and rotifers (Synchaete sp.). Dinospores colourless, 27-33 µm long, 22-27 µm wide. Epicone conical, hypocone hemispherical or conical. Girdle median, left-handed, sulcus extending from antapex to apex. Nucleus roundish oval lying in the epicone. Trophont oval, slightly constricted by the girdle, up to 80 µm in length. Tubiform peduncle with a wall, left inside the host after detachment of the parasite. Detached trophont initially motile, then by secretion of a gelatinous envelope developing into a palmelloid multiplication stage. By repeated binary fission up to 16 or 32 dinospores are formed.
Freshly released dinospores are capable of infecting eggs of copepods or rotifers within the same day. In the absence of hosts they remain motile for a few weeks and do not encyst. Two-week old dinospores can still infect freshly offered eggs.

Body_trophont_length: 80 µm
Body_spores_length: 27-33 µm
Body_spores_wide: 22-27 µm

Etymology

The generic name and the epithet refer to the type locality.

Type species

This is the type species of the genus.

Type illustration / Type locality / Type specimen

Type locality: German Bight near List/Sylt.

Ecology

Substrate: epizoic
Salinity: marine
Sociability_trophonts: solitary
Sociability_trophonts: sometime gregarious

Life cycle

Generation: <1 month
Reproduction_mode: asexual
Symbiont: horizontal

Feeding behaviour

Parasitism
Phagotrophy

Mode of locomotion

Flagellum_spore:2

Observation site(s)

HOSTS

Displaying 1 - 4 of 4
Association with... Region origin Name of site In reference...
Acartia sp. Wadden Sea near List/Sylt
Pseudocalanus elongatus Wadden Sea near List/Sylt
Temora longicornis Wadden Sea near List/Sylt
Synchaeta sp. Wadden Sea near List/Sylt