Figure 3. Systematic scheme for the phylum Ciliophora suggested by the present and previous works.

The order Discocephalida was established by Wicklow⁴⁷, and revised to contain two suborders Discocephalina and Pseudoamphisiellina by Miao et al.⁴⁵. The order Discotrichida was established in Fan et al.¹⁰³. The order Loxocephalida was originally proposed by Jankowski¹⁸ and was confirmed by Li et al.⁶⁶, Gao et al.⁶⁰, Zhang et al.⁶², etc. The order Lynnellida was established by Liu et al.⁵⁵. The class Cariacotrichea was established by Orsi et al.¹²². The order Mesodiniida was resurrected and the class Mesodiniea was established by Chen et al.¹⁷. The classes Protocruziea and Licnophoriea are defined in the present study.