Cap 2

bundle 
of microtubules , typically very few in number, 
extending along the side of somatic kineties at 
or below the level of the proximal end of the 
kinetosomes ; found in a number of oligohymeno-
phoreans ; sometimes confounded with subkinetal
microtubules . 
Basal Plate : see Cilium . 
Bell : body proper, minus the stalk , of many ses-
siline peritrichs : see Zooid . 
Benthic : pertaining to the bottom or near-bottom 
of an ocean, sea or lake; often implied by the term 
are the bottom sediments at the greatest depths of 
the body of water, but bottom-dwelling forms of 
marine life are also described by the term. 
Beta Membranoid : see Membranoid . 
Binary Fission : see Fission . 
Biofilm : in the broadest sense, a loose association 
of organisms living on/and/or attached to vari-
ous submerged substrata, often plant material or 
inanimate objects; the predominantly sessile forms, 
including many ciliates, which comprise this com-
munity may be found in marine, fresh-water or 
brackish habitats; synonyms Aufwuchs and peri-
phyton.
Biogenetic Law : ancestral resemblance during 
ontogeny ; recognition, in a broad sense, that some 
characters or structures seen during the develop-
ment of an organism may be generally reminis-
cent of some structure or character known to be 
possessed by members of an alleged ancestral 
group, in either ontogenetic or adult stages of that 
predecessor, and often in a more or less modified 
form (e.g., as proposed in Sewertzoff’s principles 
of phylembryogenesis); to this highly qualified 
extent and with extreme caution , Haeckel’s old 
aphorism – “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” 
– may be applied to some phylogenetic-systematic 
problems in ciliatology; a synonym is the Law 
of Recapitulation ; see also Morphogenesis and 
Ontogeny . 
Biological Species : an assemblage of populations 
of organisms that are able to actually or potentially 
interbreed; see Morphological Species . 
Biparakinetal : amphiparakinetal stomatogenesis 
in which two oral anlagen are formed independ-
ently; found in folliculinid heterotrichs . 
Bipolar Kinety : somatic kinety running from pole 
to pole of the organism without interruption, with-
out circling the body transversely, without going 
over the top and down the other side; fundamen-
tally, kineties are assumed to be bipolar; in fact, 
there are many exceptions, but they may generally 
be considered secondary modifications of the basic 
original plan of cortical organization in ciliates 
– and it is noteworthy that the Rule of Desmodexy
is never violated; see Kinety .
Birth Pore : opening or site of emergence of an 
internally budded larval form during the budding 
process of reproduction in some suctorians (BPr, 
Fig. 2.11Cb). 
Blepharismin : photosensitive cytoplasmic “pink” 
pigment found in pigmentocysts in various species 
of the heterotrich Blepharisma ; formerly called 
zoopurpurin (not to be confused with blepharis-
mone or blepharmone : see below). 
Blepharismone : the conjugation -inducing com-
pound 3-(2′-formylamino-5′-hydroxy-benzoyl) 
lactate or Gamone 2, isolated from the heterotrich 
Blepharisma ; probably a derivative of tryptophan; 
see Blepharmone . 
Blepharmone : conjugation -inducing glycoprotein 
isolated from the heterotrich Blepharisma . 
Border Membrane : finely striated circumferential 
band with fibers and proteinaceous radial pins , 
which are associated with and reinforce the adhe-
sive disc of mobiline peritrichs ; sometimes called a 
corona (BM, Fig. 2.9Bg, 2.9Bh). 
Boring Apparatus : see mention under Rostrum . 
Bristle : common name for long or short, generally 
single, rather stiff, resilient cilia of several kinds; 
perform a variety of presumed functions, includ-
ing sensory, tactile, thigmotactic, locomotor, and 
attachment; occurring on one or more parts of 
the body of various ciliates; see Brosse, Caudal
Cilium, Saltatorial Cilia, Sensory Bristle . 
Bristle Kinety (pl. Kineties ): somatic kineties 
restricted to one side, typically “dorsal”, of the body
(e.g. the karyorelictean , Loxodes ; the hypotrich 
20 2. Glossary of Terms and Concepts Useful in Ciliate Systematics
Euplotes ); characterized by kinetids whose cilia are 
straight or bristle-like. 
Brood Chamber : see Brood Pouch . 
Brood Pouch : temporary in some suctorians or 
permanent in some chonotrichs internal chamber 
or cavity formed by invagination of the pellicle and 
within which budding occurs, producing the larval
form in the life cycle; preferably called a crypt in 
 chonotrichs ; also known as an embryo sac or mar-
supium (BPch, Fig. 2.11Cb). 
Brosse : distinctive “brush” of clavate cilia arising 
from specialized short kineties or kinetal segments , 
often oriented obliquely to the body axis on the 
anterodorsal surface of the nondividing organism; 
characteristically found in haptorian litostomes and 
 prorodontine prostomes . 
Brow Kinety (pl. Kineties ): see Ophryokinety . 
Brush : see Brosse , the preferred term. 
Buccal Apparatus : whole complement of oral 
polykinetids or compound ciliary organelles whose 
bases are located in or associated with the buccal 
cavity or peristome (e.g., in oligohymenophore-
ans , heterotrichs , spirotrichs , and armophoreans ); 
includes paroral ( membranes ) and membranelles
sensu lato (plus homologues and possible non-
homologues of these structures) and their infracili-
ary bases (= buccal infraciliature) and peristomial 
ciliature; the whole apparatus functions primarily 
in food-getting, sometimes in locomotion. 
Buccal Area : region around the cytostome in cili-
ates that possess a buccal apparatus ; strictly speak-
ing, not , therefore, a synonym of the much broader 
and more generalized term oral region . 
Buccal Cavity : typically a quite deep oral cav-
ity , though sometimes secondarily flattened out 
or everted; often at or near the apical end of the 
body and/or on the ventral surface; contains the 
bases of the oral polykinetids or compound ciliary 
organelles and inwardly leads ultimately to the 
organism’s cytostome-cytopharyngeal complex , 
sometimes via a specialized portion of itself known 
as the infundibulum ; often applied to the oral cav-
ity of oligohymenophoreans , but it is considered 
to be the structural equivalent of the peristome of 
 heterotrichs and spirotrichs . 
Buccal Ciliature : see Buccal Apparatus . 
Buccal Infraciliature : see Buccal Apparatus . 
Buccal Membranelles : see Membranelle . 
Buccal Organelles : see Buccal Apparatus . 
Buccal Overture : outer or distal opening or aperture
of the buccal cavity , though essentially unrecogni-
zable (i.e., disappears) when the buccal cavity 
is everted or flattened out; typical of and easily 
visible in some oligohymerophoreans , such as 
Paramecium , Tetrahymena , and Ophryoglena . 
Bucco-anal Stria (pl. Bucco-anal Striae ): see 
Director-meridian . 
Buccokinetal : type of stomatogenesis in which at 
least some of the fields of kinetosomes involved 
– as the ultimate anlage – have an apparent origin 
from the organelles of the parental oral apparatus
sensu lato ; characteristic of many oligohymenopho-
reans ; formerly known as the autonomous and/or 
semi-autonomous mode(s) of stomatogenesis; see 
Ophryobuccokinetal and Scuticobuccokinetal
(Fig. 2.11Df, 2.11Dg). 
Bud : filial product of a single or multiple fission, 
characteristically much smaller than the parental 
form and typically quite unlike it in both form and 
function; generally ciliated, playing a dispersal role
in the organism’s life cycle; results from a variety 
of methods of budding ; it is a form occurring uni-
versally among suctorians and chonotrichs, not 
uncommonly in rhynchodians , some peritrichs , 
some apostomes , and occasionally in other groups, 
including even a species of hypotrich (Bud, Fig. 
2.11C).
Budding : binary (though typically anisotomic ) or