Kaonashia

The genus Kaonashia is named after the fictional ghost from the Hayao Miyazaki film Spirited Away. The specific epithet insperata () references the unanticipated phylogenetic placement of this organism given its appearance. ==Description==

Cellular organization Kaonashia insperata is a species of free-living phagotrophic flagellates. The cells are roughly ovoid or bean-shaped, 7–13 μm long, abundant in simple extrusomes and flattened cortical alveoli underlying much of the cell membrane, and with a conspicuous ventral groove. The mitochondria have tubular cristae. The cell shape and size is distorted when containing food vacuoles and prey cells. They feed on various species of unicellular algae, particularly those that are larger than 5 μm, such as Guillardia theta. ==Systematics==

Cells of this species were first obtained from the photic zone of Soap Lake, Washington, USA, initially under the name of isolate SC, together with residual Guillardia theta prey cells and bacteria. The flagellates were cultivated and studied under light and electron microscopy, which unveiled numerous morphological traits associated with the Stramenopiles. A phylogenetic analysis performed with the SSU rDNA gene placed these flagellates within the Stramenopiles clade. Despite the close resemblance with developayellids, there is no well-supported affinity to any particular stramenopile subgroup. As a result, the organism was classified as a new genus and species Kaonashia insperata in a new separate family Kaonashiidae, placed directly in the Stramenopiles. The description was published in 2023 in an article by protistologists Elizabeth J. Weston, Yana Eglit, and Alastair G. B. Simpson. Resin-embedded cells of isolate SC were assigned as the hapantotype of Kaonashia insperata and deposited in the Institute of Parasitology of the Czech Academy of Sciences under the code ICPAS_Pro_77. ==References==