Subclass (4) Suctoria Claparède & Lachmann, 1858

Syns.

Acineta[e] , Acinetaria, Acinetina, Acinet[o]idea, Actinifera, Actinosuctorifera, Atricha, Dystricha, Suctorasina, Suctorea, Suctoriae, Suctorifera, Suctoriorida, Tentaculifer[id]a, Tentaculiferiae, Toxistomia p.p.

Multiple (few to many, rarely none) ingestatory suctorial tentacles, containing numerous microtubules - arranged peripherally - and haptocysts distally (at tips); mature form customarily sedentary, without cilia (though with an infraciliature), and often with a scopuloid-produced noncontractile stalk of varying length; migratory motile larval form, produced by some mode of budding, generally bearing cilia (often considered as predominantly comprising a "right-ventral" field) but no tentacles or stalk; contractile vacuole and pore present, but no cytoproct; conjugation of different kinds, but frequently total with unequal conjugants; body often (though not universally) of conspicuous size and attached to variety of substrata; species many and widespread, predominantly as symphorionts on diverse marine or fresh-water organisms (largely invertebrates), but some as endocommensals in hosts ranging from other ciliates to vertebrates.

With characteristics of subclass (above); great diversity of "hosts" as substrata. (see page 107).

Order SUCTORIDA Claparède & Lachmann, 1858