Ericiolus cf. bendifii, Archontikis & Millán & Winter & Young, 2023

Archontikis, Odysseas A., Millán, Josué G., Winter, Amos & Young, Jeremy R., 2023, Taxonomic re-evaluation of Ericiolus and Mercedesia (Prymnesiophyceae) and description of three new species, Phycologia 62 (2), pp. 179-193 : 186

Ericiolus cf. bendifii

Figs 30–33

REMARKS: Three of our specimens appear similar to E. bendifii sp. nov., and E. sheldoniae sp. nov., but the nannoliths have only a short central spine rather than a long spine with a terminal knob or calyx. These most obviously resemble E. bendifii sp. nov., but may alternatively be incompletely formed or broken specimens of E. sheldoniae sp. nov., as they occurred in the same sample from the BIOSOPE cruise, and the calyces appear to be only weakly attached in that species.

Figures

Figs 30–36. SEM micrographs of Ericiolus cf. bendifii, E. aspiphorus comb. nov. and E. multistellatus comb. nov. Scale bars = 1 μm. Fig. 30. Ericiolus cf. bendifii. Dense layer of star-shaped nannoliths showing bifucation near their centre and a short central process on distal side. Fig. 31. Ericiolus cf. bendifii. Detailed view of specimen in Fig. 30, with two nannoliths in, respectively, distal (upper nannolith) and proximal (lower nannolith) views. Fig. 32. Ericiolus cf. bendifii. Collapsed and dense layer of triradiate nannoliths bearing a short central spine at the centre; the spine is usually seen collapsed. Fig. 33. Ericiolus cf. bendifii. Detailed view of nannoliths from Fig. 32; arrow indicates the upturned end of the ray tips of the nannolith. Fig. 34. Collapsed nannoliths of Ericiolus aspiphorus comb. nov.. Arrow indicates the short central knob observed at the nannolith centre in distal view. Fig. 35. Collapsed dense layer of E. multistellatus comb. nov., triradiate nannoliths. Fig. 36. Well-preserved triradiate nannoliths of E. multistellatus comb. nov., which bear a small knob (arrow) at their centre, in distal view. Bottom left side showing a Solisphaera turbinella A. Kahn & M-P. Aubry coccolith.