Platychrysella Valkanov, 1970

Holotype species: Platychrysella vorax Valkanov

Publication details: Valkanov, 1970: 278, 282

Original publication and holotype designation: Valkanov, A. (1970). Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Protozoen des Schwarzen Meeres. Zoologischer Anzeiger 184(3-4): 241-290, 55 figures.

Description: Uniflagellate, amoeboid stage predominant, epipelic, creeping or attached to surfaces by the anterior end of the cell. Cells solitary, broadly oblong to irregularly rounded, being able to produce a large number of short, blunt pseudopodia, which make very slow amoeboid movements. The single emergent flagellum is coiled round the anterior end in attached cells. Protoplast with a small chloroplast and a stigma, the position of which is variable, lying more or less centrally in creeping cells or closer to the anterior end in attached cells. Amoeboid cells are able to ingest food (e. g. diatoms) in large quantities. Occasionally cells become detached from the substratum and swim away. Free-swimming stage Chromulina-like, regularly obovate to elliptic in shape, the small chloroplast and stigma lying close to the anterior end of the cell. Cell division appears to take place exclusively in the amoeboid stage. Pre-division stages with 2 chloroplasts and 2 stigmas. Stomatocysts have not been observed. Only known from the original description from the Black Sea.

Information contributed by: H. R. Preisig. The most recent alteration to this page was made on 2021-10-18 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.

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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Some of the descriptions included in AlgaeBase were originally from the unpublished Encyclopedia of Algal Genera, organised in the 1990s by Dr Bruce Parker on behalf of the Phycological Society of America (PSA) and intended to be published in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=44797

Citing AlgaeBase
Cite this record as:
M.D. Guiry in Guiry, M.D. & Guiry, G.M. 18 October 2021. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. https://www.algaebase.org; searched on 27 June 2025