Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2001
The morphology and stomatogenesis of the marine scuticociliate Paranophrys magna, collected from a crab-culturing pond in Qingdao, China, were studied. It possessed typical characteristics of the genus Paranophrys. The stomatogenesis of this species corresponds basically with the results provided in previous studies for this genus, the main sequence develops can be generalized as follows according to the Qingdao population: (i) in the proter: the remnant of the parental paroral membrane generates the new paroral membrane and the scutica; and (ii) in the opisthe: both the paroral membrane and scutica originate from the proliferation of the anterior part of the secondary primordial field, membranelles 1&2 derive from the posterior part of the secondary primordial field, while membranelle 3 from the proliferation of the parental scutica which form the primary primordial field. Some differences between our results and previous descriptions are compared and discussed.