Freshwater scaled chrysophytes, heliozoa and thaumatomonad flagellates from Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

A total of nine silica-scaled chrysophytes (Chrysophyceae: two species each in Spiniferomonas and Paraphysomonas; Synurophyceae: five Mallomonas species), 16 heliozoa, and two scaled flagellates were recorded from 19 samples collected from Edo State, Nigeria, over a period covering both dry and rainy seasons in 2006–2007. Identifications were based on transmission electron microscopy. Eleven are new records for Africa, including a new species of Mallomonas, M. cribridomus. Also observed were two siliceous scaled colourless free-living thaumatomonad flagellates, Thaumatomastix nigeriensis and Gyromitus limax, the latter also a new record for Africa.

Keywords: Africa, Chrysosphaerella, Gyromitus, Mallomonas, Paraphysomonas, silica-scaled chrysophytes, Spiniferomonas, Thaumatomastix

African Journal of Aquatic Science 2011, 36(2): 207–212