Notes on the taxonomy of Stentor Oken (Protozoa, Ciliophora) and a description of a new species

The taxonomy of a heterotrichous ciliate genus Stentor has beeninvestigated on the basis of the author's old notebooks andphotographs of the species found in and around Hiroshima City,Japan. In addition to the ten known species that were found,including the ones synonymized by Foissner and Wölfl (Foissnerand Wölfl, 1994), a new species was also present and isdescribed in this article. The results of grafting an organismof one species with another from either the same or a differentspecies are also given. Use of stock-cultured, live specimensis recommended to observe the characters overlooked or disregardedby Foissner and Wölfl (Foissner and Wölfl, 1994) andto perform the grafting experiment which gives subsidiary informationon the taxonomic status of the strains concerned.