An SEM study of adhesive disc skeletal structures isolated from trichodinids (Ciliophora: Peritrichida) of the genera Trichodina Ehrenberg, 1838 and Paratrichodina Lom, 1963.

Specimens of Trichodina domerguei Wallengren, 1897, T. intermedia (Lom, 1961) and Paratrichodina incissa (Lom, 1959) were sonicated to liberate skeletal components of the adhesive disc. This enabled SEM observation of the taxonomically important structures obscured in preparations of complete cells. A previously undescribed peg-like structure on the centrifugal surface of the central part of the denticles is revealed in T. domerguei. In P. incissa the ray apophysis and its supporting apophysis appear to be absent, providing an additional characteristic to discriminate it from species of the genus Trichondina Ehrenberg, 1838. From silver stained and SEM preparations of T. intermedia and P. incissa important differences in denticle blade form are apparent, underlining the value of observation of isolated skeletal structures by electron microscopy.