Morphology and typification of Mastogloia smithii and M. lacustris, with descriptions of two new species from the Florida Everglades and the Caribbean region

Abstract

The names Mastogloia smithii Thwaites ex Smith and M. smithii var. lacustris Grunow have been attributed to a variety of related diatom morphologies, partly due to the poor availability of type material and complicated nomenclatural history. The history is detailed, clarifying the type morphologies of M. smithii and reconfirming a neglected elevation of M. smithii var. lacustris to M. lacustris (Grunow) Grunow. Populations reported as M. smithii and M. lacustris from the temperate zone (Ontario, Canada and Iowa and Michigan, USA), karstic wetlands of the subtropical Everglades (Florida, USA) and the tropics (Jamaica, Mexico and Belize) are compared with each other. Based on morphological differences including density of partecta, striae and areolae, M. calcarea sp. nov. and M. pseudosmithii sp. nov. are described from the Everglades and the Caribbean region, and a lectotype of M. smithii and a neotype of M. lacustris are designated.

Keywords:

• Mastogloia smithii
• Mastogloia lacustris
• Mastogloia calcarea
• Mastogloia pseudosmithii
• Everglades
• Caribbean
• wetland

Acknowledgements

This research was funded in part by the John Clayton Kingston Diatom Fellowship (Iowa Lakeside Laboratory) and the Everglades Foundation fellowship awarded to S. Lee. Funding was also provided to E. Gaiser by the South Florida Water Management District for Everglades collections (Contract 4600001083 with FIU). We thank two anonymous reviewers, E.J. Cox, M. Poulin, K. Sabbe, and K. Serieyssol for comments that greatly improved the manuscript, F. Tobias and A. Scharnagl for field assistance, the FIU Periphyton Lab, J.P. Kociolek for material from Michigan, the Farlow Herbarium for the loan of several diatom slides, M. Gantar for figure 43, and J. La Hée for Caribbean diatom slides and data. We thank A. Ball, the staff of the EMMA laboratory and E.J. Cox at the Natural History Museum for their help with the scanning electron microscopy. This study was supported by an EU Synthesys grant to B. Van de Vijver to visit the Natural History Museum in London, UK. Caribbean research was funded by an international supplement award to the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program through the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DBI-0620409 and DEB-9910514. This is contribution number 621 from the Southeast Environmental Research Center at FIU.