Sunday Protist -- Rostronympha and latest parabasalian taxonomy

Since I just spent hours staring at onychophorans (instead of studying), gonna skimp out on the Sunday Protist this week. So here's a wonderful alien-looking freak with a proboscis, Rostronympha; I totally demand an SEM of this, by the way:

Parabasalid Rostronympha. Image by Guy Brugerolle via Micro*scope.

I can't find the original description at the moment, but vaguely recall having searched for it ambitiously once and failed miserably. It's supposed to be (Duboscq, Grassé & Rose, 1937), with a later mention in PP Grasse, A Hollande (1963) Ann. Sci. Natur. Zool. Ser "Les flagelles des genres Holomastigotoides et. Rostronympha". Might as well order it sometime...

And now onto a really nice taxonomic summary of parabsalians by Cepicka, Hampl and Kulda 2009 in Protist:

Recently revised parabasalian taxonomy.

There are now six classes: Trichomonadea, Hypotrichomonadea, Cristamonadea, Tritrichomonadea, Spirotrichonymphea and Trichonymphea. This will be on the final AND your next weekly spelling test. More importantly, this is how they relate:

Phylogenetic relationships between the six new classes.

Ok, I must run...will definitely get back to parabasalians in much more detail later. Some people in our department happen to be rather obsessed with them, and obsession can be contagious. But for now, feel free to join me in salivating over that really sweet diagram!

Right, finals...

Source:
Cepicka, I., Hampl, V., & Kulda, J. (2010). Critical Taxonomic Revision of Parabasalids with Description of one new Genus and three new Species Protist DOI: 10.1016/j.protis.2009.11.005