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Issue: Vol. 393 No. 1: 20 February 2019
Type: Article
Published: 2019-02-20
DOI: 10.11646/phytotaxa.393.1.3
Page range: 35–46
Abstract views: 16
PDF downloaded: 1

First Report and New Freshwater Species of Germainiella (Bacillariophyta) from the Maolan Nature Reserve, Guizhou Province, China

Museum of Natural History and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI, USA
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI, USA Department of Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA
College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
Algae Germainiella Fallacia China Maolan Nature Reserve SEM diatoms

Abstract

We present light and scanning electron microscopic observations on the valve ultrastructure of 4 species of the genus Germainiella from the Maolan Nature Reserve from Guizhou Province, China.  This is the first report of the genus from China.  The new species differ in the shape and size of the valves, but they all have the large conopeum covering the entire face of the valve.  One species, G. sinica, lacks small tubules running perpendicular to the raphe opening, one of the defining features of the genus, and in having the large conopeum but lacking the tubules resembles another diatom, Fallacia emmae, described from the subantarctic region.  We conclude that Germainiella and Fallacia, as typified by F. pygmaea, are not closely related, but species assigned to Fallacia may be closely related to Germainiella.  A new combination, G. emmae, is proposed.  We discuss the nature of conopea, and other small, finely-structured naviculoid diatoms that might be better placed in Germainiella.  The genus is now recognized to have a total of 7 species, 4 of which are from the Maolan Nature Reserve.