Monograph of the Urostyloidea (Ciliophora, Hypotricha)

The Urostyloidea are a large group of hypotrichs comprising limnetic, marine, and terrestrial species in well-known genera such as Holosticha, Urostyla, and Pseudokeronopsis. Holosticha pullaster is one of the most common hypotrichs in fresh and salt water.

This monograph is the second of a series treating the hypotrichs, a major part of the spirotrichous ciliates. Like the first volume, covering the Oxytrichidae, it summarises 230 years of morphological, morphogenetic, faunistic, and ecological data, heretofore scattered in some 1,300 references from around the world.

Dichotomous keys lead to 36 genera and subgenera comprising 153 species are illustrated by more than 2100 figures. The treatise offers taxonomists, cell biologists, and ecologists a thorough and up-to-date revision, providing a detailed list of synonyms, a discussion of the nomenclature and systematics, and an extensive description of the morphology and ecology, including almost all published faunistic records, for each species.

Together, the monographs on the Urostyloidea and the Oxytrichidae identify more than 320 species of hypotrichs, which are an important