Anthophysa Bory, 1822, nom. cons.

Holotype species: Anthophysa muelleri Bory

Currently accepted name for the type species: Anthophysa vegetans (O.F.Müller) F.Stein

Original publication and holotype designation: Bory de Saint-Vincent, J.B.G.M. (1822). Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle par Messieurs Audouin, Isid. Bourdon, Ad. Brongniart, De Candolle, Daudebard de Férusac, A. Desmoulins, Drapiez, Edwards, Flourens, Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire, A. De Jussieu, Kunth, G. de Lafosse, Lamouroux, Latreille, Lucas fils, Presle-Duplessis, C. Prévost, A. Richard, Thiébaut de Berneaud, et Bory de Saint-Vincent. Ouvrage dirigé par ce dernier collaborateur, et dans lequel on a ajouté, pour le porter au niveau de la science, un grand nombre de mots qui n'avaient pu faire partie de la plupart des Dictionnaires antérieurs. Tome premier. pp. [i]-xvi, 1-604. Paris: Rey et Gravier; Baudoin frères.

Description: Cells colorless, usually united at their bases into spherical or hemispherical colonies of up to 60 cells. Colonies free-swimming or attached to subsratum by means of a stalk which is often branched. Young stalks extruded as a colorless, sticky gelatinous mass. Older stalks usually relatively transparent near the cells, but distally often becoming brown and increasingly thickenedby mineralized deposits of calcium phosphate and compounds of iron and manganese. Central part of the stalk occupied by one or more fine protoplasmic strands extending from posterior end of the cell. Individual cells indistinguishable from Spumella; naked, somewhat metabolic, obpyriform or obconical, with an obliquely truncate apex bearing two flagella of unequal length. Protoplast with a large nucleus, a leucoplast, 1-3 contractile vacuoles, and one or more chrysolaminaran vacuoles. Stigma present or lacking. Food particles (e.g.bacteria) are ingested within a few seconds at any place along the periphery of the cell. Undigested contents of nutritive vacuoles are voided near the base of the cell. Reproduction may be due to an escape of solitary cells or to a colony dissociating into individual cells. Colonies may also divide into two parts, each of which may excrete a stalk, the original one bifurcating. Nuclear division is sometime not immediately followed by a celldivision, leading to binucleate cells. Such cells may form globular stomatocysts, in which the two nuclei may fuse. Sexual reproduction by fusion of whole cells has never been observed. Freshwater lakes and ponds, widely distributed.

Information contributed by: H.R.Preisig. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2021-10-11 by M.D. Guiry.

Taxonomic status: This name is of an entity that is currently accepted taxonomically.

Gender: This genus name is currently treated as feminine.

Most recent taxonomic treatment adopted: Kawai, H. & Nakayama, T. (2015). Introduction (Heterokontobionta p.p.), Cryptophyta, Dinophyta, Haptophyta, Heterokontophyta (except Coscinodiscophyceae, Mediophyceae, Fragilariophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Phaeophyceae, Eustigmatophyceae), Chlorarachniophyta, Euglenophyta. In: Syllabus of plant families. Adolf Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien. Ed. 13. Phototrophic eukaryotic Algae. Glaucocystophyta, Cryptophyta, Dinophyta/Dinozoa, Haptophyta, Heterokontophyta/Ochrophyta, Chlorarachnniophyta/Cercozoa, Chlorophyta, Streptophyta p.p. (Frey, W. Eds), pp. 11-64, 103-139. Stuttgart: Borntraeger Science Publishers.

Comments: Kristiansen & Preisig (2001: 9) record this genus as alternately being a member of the family Ochromonadaceae Lemmerman 1899.

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Contributors
Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in CD format. These AlgaeBase descriptions are now being continually updated, and each current contributor is identified above. The PSA and AlgaeBase warmly acknowledge the generosity of all past and present contributors and particularly the work of Dr Parker.

Descriptions of chrysophyte genera were subsequently published in J. Kristiansen & H.R. Preisig (eds.). 2001. Encyclopedia of Chrysophyte Genera. Bibliotheca Phycologica 110: 1-260.

Linking to this page: https://www.algaebase.org/search/genus/detail/?genus_id=43787

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 11 October 2021. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 02 May 2024