Freeliving Protozoan Diversity of West Bengal

Abstract

Despite the important role as bioindicators for pollution and environmental biomonitoring and especially in the food chain of wetland ecosystems, studies on the freeliving protozoan fauna from India are meager. In the present communication an analysis of freeliving protozoans species from wetlands of West Bengal mostly based on Das et al. (1993) and from Kolkata wetlands based on Bindu (2010). Nandi et al. (1993) reported 41 freeliving protozoan species from Sundarban mangrove ecosystem. In the State Fauna of West Bengal, Das et al. (1993) documented a total of 248 species of freeliving protozoans under 124 genera belonging to 2 phyla, 2 subphyla, 7 classes, 29 orders and 76 families (Table 1), while the present author recorded 23 species of ciliates from Kolkata wetlands.