Brachonella contorta from a four month old sample taken in August 2022 from the northernmost edge benthos of a spring-fed freshwater coastal pond in the Atlantic Double Dune Reserve. The sampling site is 250 meters from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. They measure up to 123 um in length.

"Brachonella contorta (Levander, 1894) Jankowski, 1964 (original combination Metopus contortus Levander, 1894) Improved diagnosis based on our populations and the original description (Levander 1894): Body size about 70 − 126 × 42 − 106 um in vivo. Body bullet-shaped, massive conical preoral dome nearly obscures short bluntly truncate postoral part. Dorsoventral flattening of preoral dome rather variable. Cytostome markedly displaced posteriorly. Dense brownish-black cytoplasmic granule aggregate at the anterior end of preoral dome invariably present. Macronucleus globular, in anterior body half. Usually about 55 ciliary rows, about 22 of which are preoral dome kineties abutting to form apical suture in ventral view. Elongated evenly distributed cilia encircle posterior end. Perizonal ciliary stripe invariably comprises five rows, never arranged in false kineties, same length as adoral zone proximally, slightly longer distally. Paroral stichomonad. Adoral zone makes 360◦ spiral around long axis, usually comprises about 60 membranelles" (1).

1. William Bourland, Johana Rotterová, Ivan Čepička. Redescription and molecular phylogeny of the type species for two main metopid genera, Metopus es (Müller, 1776) Lauterborn, 1916 and Brachonella contorta (Levander, 1894) Jankowski, 1964 (Metopida, Ciliophora), based on broad geographic sampling. Eur. J. Protistol. (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejop.2016.11.002