The morphology and infraciliature of the type species of the ciliate genus Trachelostyla, T. pediculiformis (Cohn, 1866) Borror, 1972, collected from the Bohai Sea near Tianjin, north China, were investigated using live observation and protargol impregnation. The Chinese population corresponds well with the original description, as follows: size about 80-150 x 20-30 microm in vivo; body dorsoventrally flattened and non-spiral; outline elongate, with anterior region conspicuously narrowed while posterior not; on average 14 macronuclear nodules, two micronuclei and 42 adoral membranelles; 16-24 cirri in left and 21-31 in right marginal row. In total 18 frontoventral-transverse cirri: constantly 11 cirri in frontal area and two ventral ones together with five enlarged transverse cirri (TC). Three inconspicuous caudal cirri (CC); six dorsal kineties with prominent cilia. The literature on T. pediculiformis is critically reviewed, showing that the descriptions so far do not agree very well. To clarify the taxonomic status of this species, the population from the Chinese coast of the Bohai Sea is designated as a neotype. The small subunit rRNA gene was sequenced for the neotype and the molecular phylogenetic tree basically supports the establishment of the family Trachelostylidae Small & Lynn, 1985. Based on the data obtained, the genus Trachelostyla Borror, 1972 is redefined thus: dorsoventrally flattened trachelostylids, body non-spirally twisted and elongate, with peristomal region conspicuously narrowed; ciliature generally in 11:2:5:3 pattern, i.e. 11 cirri in frontal region, two ventral cirri located anterior to five TC, three CC present; one left and one right row of marginal cirri not confluent posteriorly. A new genus Spirotrachelostyla nov. gen. is proposed to include the taxa which were previously assigned to Trachelostyla but characterized by spirally twisted, spindle-like body shape and a variable number of cirri in the peristomal area. Three new combinations are suggested: Spirotrachelostyla spiralis (Dragesco & Dragesco-Kernéis, 1986) nov. comb. [basionym: Trachelostyla spiralis Dragesco & Dragesco-Kernéis, 1986], S. tani (Hu & Song, 2002) nov. comb. [basionym: T. tani Hu & Song, 2002] and S. simplex (Kahl, 1932) nov. comb. [basionym: Stichotricha simplex Kahl, 1932].