Studies on marine flagellates II. Three new species of Chrysochromulina

Abstract

The three new species to be described below are the first of a considerable series of related forms, recently isolated from marine plankton off the British coasts and possessing in common a number of rather unusual characters which make their classification difficult. They are all very small and extremely fragile unicellular flagellates, with the characteristic golden brown plastid colour and metabolic products found in the Chrysophyceae to which they undoubtedly belong. Within this group their placing is more difficult and it cannot even be adequately discussed until the whole range of new forms is available for comparison. The most that we can do on this occasion is to make some provisional generic comparisons in order to establish a system of nomenclature. Unfortunately, existing descriptions of relevant genera are both scanty and incomplete, a defect which is easily explained by the nature of the organisms and the need for special facilities for their adequate study.

Studies on marine flagellates: III. Three further species of Chrysochromulina

“…Two of the new species of Chrysochromulina to be described here are somewhat more like the type species (C. parva Lackey) than were any of those included in our last communication (Part II of this series-Parke, Manton & Clarke, 1955). The diagnostic generic character of the presence of three filiform appendages arising close together is shared by all, and as before two of the appendages are flagella of equal or almost equal length and the third is a special organ to which the name haptonemahas been given (Gr.…”

“…That we have not, at this stage, chosen to do this is partly due to the striking similarity of all these species in other respects, which in this particular group are perhaps as important taxonomically, but in part also to our inability to find any structural differences between the two flagella of the kind which normally accompanies the truly heterokont condition, cf. Synura (Manton, 1955); when fixed therefore they cannot be distinguished from isokonts. There is the further difficulty caused by our present ignorance of the relevant facts for the type species C. parva Lackey.…”

Ribosomal DNA phylogenies and a morphological revision provide the basis for a revised taxonomy of the Prymnesiales (Haptophyta)

“…E-mail: bente.edvardsen@ bio.uio.no (Preisig, 2003). In the 1950s, Parke and colleagues (Parke et al, 1955(Parke et al, , 1956(Parke et al, , 1958(Parke et al, , 1959) described a series of marine Chrysochromulina species, and since then many others have been added (see e.g. Leadbeater, 1972;Ha¨llfors & Niemi, 1974;Estep et al, 1984;Moestrup & Thomsen, 1986;Kawachi & Inouye, 1993;.…”

Further Observations on the Fine Structure of Chrysochromulina Minor and C. Kappa with Special Reference to the Pyrenoids

“…Much new information has now come from a re-investigation of two of the earliest studied marine species of Chrysochromulina, originally described without the aid of sections (Parke, Manton & Clarke, 1955). Both C. minor and C. kappa differ from the other species enumerated above in having a smaller average cell size and a considerably shorter haptonema.…”

“…Finally the source of material has in each case been the type culture supplied from Plymouth by Dr Parke. The reference numbers in the Plymouth collection are K for C. kappa and 52 for C. minor as explained in Parke et al (1955). We are grateful to the Development Commission for financial assistance, to Dr M. Parke for supplying cultures and reading the manuscript, and to Mr K. Oates and Miss Sheila Wright for help in preparing the plates for publication and in many other ways.…”