Abstract
Populations of the widespread diatom Aidacosira islandica (O. Müll.) Sim. from a number of USSR water-bodies have been studied with the help of SEM. Morphological variability of the frustules has been considered with special attention to the structure of mantle areolae and such diagnostic characters as the number of arreolar rows per 10 μm and areolae per 10 μm in a row. Variation of these characters within a wide range supports the concept that A. islandica is monotypie.