Table 4.

Comparison of main features in four Spathidium seppelti-like species. SA – Spathidium alqasabi (Saudi Arabia), SFR – S. fraterculum ^c (from Foissner et al. 2002), SF – S. foissneri (from Vd’ačný et al. 2006), SS – Spathidium seppelti (from Petz and Foissner 1997)

Characteristicsa	SA	SFRc	SF	SS
Body, length	171.3	133.5	149.6	99.3
Body, width	46.2	25.1	25.7	24.8
Body length:width, ratio	3.8	5.4	5.9	4.0
Oral bulge, length	30.2	40.9	38.5	31.5
Body length:length of oral bulge, ratio	5.7	3.3	3.9	3.1
Brush kinety 1, lengthb	29.7	34.0	31.9	18.1
Brush kinety 2, lengthb	42.2	38.1	36.9	22.3
Brush kinety 3, lengthb	32.0	35.5	10.7	9.6
Macronucleus nodules, numberd	35	67	25	>100
Somatic kineties, numberd	15.0	28.0	23.0	21.0
Dikinetids in brush row 1, numberd	21.0	27.0	30.0	13.0
Dikinetids in brush row 2, numberd	32.0	40.0	35.0	18.0
Dikinetids in brush row 3, numberd	22.0	27.0	10.0	8.0
Extrusomes, shape and size	very slenderly ellipsoidal; 4–5 μm long	rod-shaped; type I: 5–6 μm long, type II: 3 μm long	rod-shaped to slightly ellipsoidal; 5 μm long	rod-shaped; 3–4 μm long
Conical depression in oral bulge	present	absent	absent	present
Ecology	highly saline sand soil	slightly saline soil from Etosha Pan	terrestrial moss from xero- thermic meadow	algal ornithogenic soil
Type locality	Saudi Arabia	Namibia	Slovakia	Antarctica

^aData based on protargol-impregnated (Foissner’s method for S. alqasabi, S. foissneri, S. fraterculum; Wilbert’s method for S. seppelti) specimens from non-flooded Petri dish cultures. Except where noted, based on arithmetic means. Measurements in μm.

^bDistance between circumoral kinety and last dikinetid of row.

^cSpathidium seppelti etoschense in Foissner et al. (2002). The new name is required to avoid homonymy (see description of S. alqasabi).

^dMedian values.