In Simmelried as well as in my finding areas Ulmisried and Purren pond I have found very many spathidiid ciliates over the course of years, which I could not identify based on the literature available to me. Many of these findings have probably not been described yet. As numbered “spathidiid ciliates” I would like to present these interesting ciliates here. From some of these spathidiid ciliates I have found only one specimen despite years of observation.

The spathidiid ciliate 1 I found in July 2022 in the uppermost mud layer in the Simmelried. The specimens were between 90 – 110 µm long. Freely swimming specimens were slightly flattened in the anterior third and mid-body, making the specimens appear somewhat “humped” (s. fig. 1 a-e). The oral bulge is semicircular, not wider than the body and slightly sloping ventrally. I could not clearly identify a dorsal brush. However, I noticed rows of short bristles, which are obviously arranged in parallel to the ciliary rows (s. fig 2b). There are about 25-30 ciliary rows present (s. fig. 2c) . In the plasma, very long rod-like and flexible extrusomes are visible, which are 10 – 25 µm long. I could not recognize other types of extrusomes. The macronuclei were not clearly visible. Only in the strongly pressed specimen 4 spherical bodies could be recognized, which could be macronuclei (s. fig. 3). Micronuclei could not be identified. The contractile vacuole is located terminally.