A NEW DIATOM SPECIES OF ANEUMASTUS D. G. MANN & STICKLE FROM CENTRAL TURKEY

Abstract

A new diatom species, Aneumastus aksaraiensis Spaulding, Akbulut & Kociolek, is described from epiphytic habitats of Central Anatolia, Turkey. The new species shares several features with other species of Aneumastus D.G. Mann & Stickle: undulate raphe, expanded central raphe pores, and complex areolae, and hence its generic placement. However, other features of A. aksaraiensis are markedly different and include chloroplast morphology and orientation, striae structure, the presence of pseudosepta, and degree of modification of the valvocopula. Based on these differences, we consider A. aksaraiensis to occupy an uncertain phylogenetic position, perhaps within a clade closely related to the generitype A. tusculus (Ehrenberg) D.G. Mann & Stickle that is either basal to, or derived from, Mastogloia Thwaites. Without further investigation, it is unsatisfactory at the present time to either erect a new genus, or to assign it to the sister taxon Mastogloia.