Family FURGASONIIDAE CORLISS 1979.

(for Cyclogrammidae)

Body ovoid to ellipsoidal, uniformly ciliated; hypostomial frange appearing as four definitive organelles in atrial area, reminiscent of buccal ciliature in oligohymenophorans; prominent cytopharyngeal apparatus; contractile vacuole pore midventral in location; fusiform trichocysts reported; typically in fresh-water habitats.

[On the basis of ultrastructure of the oral infraciliature, Grain et al. (1976) have recently erected a new oligohymenophoran order, Parahymenostomatida, for this family; but the cytopharyngeal apparatus is quite nassulid-like. Deroux had been planning to establish the group (as hypostomes) at the family-level; Jankowski (1975) and de Puytorac & Grain (1976) each independently published the name "Cyclogrammidae," but without characterization of the group. My belated discovery that the name Cyclogramma Perty, 1852 (possibly 1849, though not verifiable) is preoccupied by Cyclogramma Doubleday, 1847 (a lepidopteran genus legitimately named in a figure, with full text appearing early in 1849) necessitates its replacement for the ciliated protozoa involved. I propose, rather than an altogether new name, use of the little-known junior synonym Furgasonia, the name given by Jankowski (1964b, p. 272) rather incidentally suggested in his monograph on polysaprobic heterotrichs - to Nassula tricirrata von Gelei, 1932, an organism with obvious "Cyclogramma" characteristics. The replacement familial name thus becomes Furgasoniidae, formally authored by me as of this date.]

Furgasonia Jankowski, 1964 (for Cyclogramma; syn. Nassula p.p.). Possibly several species.