A new species of Germainiella (Bacillariophyta) from the Myristica swamps of the Western Ghats, India

Abstract

Germainiella chandranii sp. nov. is described from a Myristica swamp of the Western Ghats, India, on the basis of light and scanning electron microscopy. The new species resembles two related genera, Fallacia Stickle & D.G. Mann and Germainiella Lange–Bertalot & Metzeltin on the basis of valve morphology, but a thorough investigation of valve ultrastructure confirms its placement in Germainiella. External valve outline and morphology, large conopeum covering the entire face of the valve, siliceous struts running perpendicular to the raphe support the generic assignment. The main diagnostic features of the new species are the presence of small tubules running perpendicular to the raphe, striae composed of a series of round to elongated areolae, which are not covered internally by hymenes, and a larger central area. The new species occurs in acidic waters of the Myristica swamps of the Western Ghats and it can be considered as an indicator of the acidic condition.

Keywords:

• biraphid diatom
• Germainiella chandranii
• Fallacia
• India
• Myristica swamp
• taxonomy
• Western Ghats

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Director, Agharkar Research Institute, for support and encouragement. Authors are also thankful to the Karnataka Forest Department for permission to carry out this research with research permit. The authors are thankful to two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments on the previous version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Mital Thacker http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6409-1779

Surajit Roy http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2339-9723

John Patrick Kociolek http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9824-7164

Balasubramanian Karthick

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of the project supported by Ministry of Earth Sciences under paleoclimate program (MoES/CCR/Paleo-26/2015). SR would also like to thank Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), India for providing National Post-Doctoral Fellowship (PDF/2017/000877).