Dr. Tapas Chatterjee has once again published a research paper on ciliate that infects the Zwickia mite found on pitcher plants collected from a high-altitude region in Malaysia at 1810 meters above sea level.
Renowned taxonomist Dr. Tapas Chatterjee, Ph.D., D.Sc., a resident of Hirapur, Dhanbad, has once again published a research paper focusing on the ciliate epibionts of the Zwickia mite that inhabits the pitcher plant Nepenthes stenophylla, located at Paya Maga, Lawas, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, at an elevation of 1810 m a.s.l. This marks the first discovery of a ciliate associated with Nepenthes, as well as the inaugural observation of epibiosis involving a ciliate on a histiostomatid mite.
Furthermore, the paper discusses the known relationships between ciliates and phytotelmata, including the traps of pitcher plants. This report signifies the first instance of an epibiont ciliate on a Zwickia mite, representing a specialized ecological group of histiostomatids that have adapted to thrive in the digestive fluids of Nepenthes pitcher plants.
The paper, titled “The first record of the epibiotic ciliate Propyxidium (Ciliophora, Peritrichia) on a Zwickia mite (Acari, Histiostomatidae) from Nepenthes stenophylla, a Bornean pitcher plant,” was published in the journal ‘Protistology’, volume 22, pages 148-155, from Russia on June 19, 2026.
The authors include Tapas Chatterjee from India, Igor Dovgal and Nelli Gavrilova from the A.O. Kovalevsky Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as Ulmar Grafe and David J. Marshall from Universiti Brunei Darussalam.
Dr. Chatterjee is well-known for his taxonomic research on mites and ciliate epibionts. His research spans from shallow water organisms to those found in deep-sea environments. He has previously published studies on mites from high-altitude regions. The current research from the high-altitude area of Malaysian Borneo further establishes his expertise in the taxonomy of ciliate epibionts and mites.
Dr. Chatterjee earned his Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees in Zoology from Utkal University. He has published over 200 works based on specimens collected from more than 30 countries worldwide. He has described approximately 140 new species, four new genera, and several new records of microscopic aquatic organisms.
This is a moment of great pride for both Dhanbad and Jharkhand.
