Monograph of the family Spathiidae (Ciliophora)

The Spathidiidae are a group of ciliates, single-celled organisms, the best known of which is the "slipper animalcule" (Pantoffeltierchen). Ciliates belong to the protists, which embrace the world of heterotrophic and autotrophic "protozoa" or "Infusionstierchen", that is, mostly single-celled organisms of microscopic size, altogether about 250,000 named species, extant and fossil. The Spathidiidae (spatulate animalcules) consist of about 130 named species, many of which have been poorly described and which were reviewed for the last time in 1930. Thus, most present-day authors consider them as indeterminable, and all agree that just this group is in pressing need of revision. The objectives and perspectives of the project, which is integrated in the worldwide biodiversity programme, can be summarized as follows: - To estimate spathidiid biodiversity globally; - To critically review our knowledge about the Spathidiidae; - To reinvestigate and neotypify poorly known species as well as to describe about 30 new species discovered in soils worldwide. Methods will include live observations, silver impregnation, ontogenesis, scanning electron microscopy, and molecular biology (gene sequence data to be obtained by joint work with colleagues); - The outcome of the revision not only will make it possible to identify these "difficult" ciliates but will, hopefully, also give us an idea how many ciliate species exist at all. At present, highly divergent estimations are discussed, ranging from 3,000 to 30,000 species. The monograph will be written in English language and published by KLUWER, with whom I already have an agreement (see annexes). Furthermore, I envisage a computer version, but for this, I still need the o.k. from the publisher. My laboratory has great experience in doing monographic work on ciliates and is in this respect unique worldwide. The project is planed for three years, and the financial support needed amounts to about 3.6 million Austrian Shillings (~ 250.000 US Dollar), mainly to finance a full-day post-doc, a half-day technician, and a graduate student to weaken the taxonomic impediment.

Our project is a contribution to the national and international research on biodiversity, which is poorly known in single-celled organisms (Protists) because most are of microscopical size. However, protists have important functions in the earth`s ecosystems due to their huge number and productivity (1g of soil contains up to 200 000 protists), and some are very dangerous pathogens (malaria, sleeping disease). Accordingly, studies on species richness (diversity) and their geographic distribution are of interest not only to basic science, but also for ecology and medicine. They need a tool, like our monograph, for identifying and describing the biology of the species involved. The Spathidiidae are a group of free-living, heterotrophic (~ animals) protists belonging to the phylum Ciliophora (Ciliates), which comprises 10 000 described species. They occur in freshwater and soil, but are rare in the marine environment. The spathidiids are 30-500 micrometers (1mm = 1000 micrometers) long and have a spatulate shape with the mouth occupying the anterior end. Usually, the mouth is large and contains toxic arrows (toxicysts) used to kill the prey, often other ciliates, which then is engulfed. When we commenced our revision, about 250 Spathidium species were already described. However, several scientists supposed that many species are only varieties of other species. We critically revised the literature and performed many new investigations with refined methods. The following main results were obtained: (i) Most species described in the literature are valid. (ii) We discovered 60 new spathidiid species and 12 new genera in samples collected globally. (iii) The data show a high diversity of spathidiids and suggest that many of them are still undiscovered. (iv) The spathidiids are not single but several families now comprising 20 genera and nearly 300 species. We presented the results of our project at several international meetings and in various scientific journals. Further, we put together the existing knowledge in a monograph with 1200 pages.