Ellerbeckia
Crawford 1988 Category: Centric
TYPE SPECIES: Melosira arenaria Moore ex J. Ralfs
Image Credit: Pat Kociolek, Sarah Spaulding
CLASS: Coscinodiscophyceae
ORDER: Paraliales
FAMILY: Paraliaceae
- Valve surface flat
- Unique tube-like processes
- Frustules joined in colonies
Ellerbeckia frustules are large cylinders with relatively narrow mantles. Cells are joined into filamentous colonies, linked by an interlocking series of ridges and grooves on opposing valve faces. The valve surface is flat and lacks the pores or processes of many centric diatom genera. Two different kinds of valves comprise a colony: linking valves that connect adjacent cells within a colony, and separation valves that occur at the unbroken ends of each colony. In turn, each of these valve types has a cameo form (with ridges) and an intaglio form (with grooves). Internally, unique tube-like processes are present.
Ellerbeckia arenaria grows in subaerial habitats and benthically on sandy sediments of oligotrophic waters. The genus includes species formerly within Melosira and Paralia. Ellerbeckia is also common in Miocene fossil deposits of the western US (Kociolek and Spaulding, 2002).
Cite This Page:
Spaulding, S., and Edlund, M. (2009). Ellerbeckia. In Diatoms of the United States. Retrieved May 24, 2013, from http://westerndiatoms.colorado.edu/taxa/genus/Ellerbeckia
Contributor: Sarah Spaulding | Mark Edlund - January 2009
Reviewer: Sam Rushforth
Citations
Crawford, R.M. (1988). A reconsideration of Melosira arenaria and M. teres; resulting in a proposed new genus Ellerbeckia. In Algae and the Aquatic Environment (Round, F.E. editor), Biopress, Bristol. 413-433.
Crawford, R.M. and Sims, P.A. (2007). Ellerbeckia baileyi (H.L. Smith) Crawford & Sims comb. nov. typification and frustule morphology of a rare freshwater fossil diatom. Diatom Research 22: 17-26.
Huber-Pestalozzi, G. (1942). Das Phytoplankton des Susswasers. Systematik und Biologie. In Die Binnengewasser, A. Thienemann (ed.) 16: 367-549. E Schweizerbart'sche Verlag. Stuttgart, Germany.
Hustedt, F. (1930). Die Kieselalgen Deutschlands, Osterreichs und der Schweiz mit Berucksichtigung der ubrigen Lander Europas sowie der angrenzenden Meersgebiete. In: Dr. L. Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen-Flora von Deutschland, Osterreich und der Schweiz. Leipzig, Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Geest und Portig K.-G. Vol. 7, Part 3, pp. 557-816.
Schmid, A.M. and Crawford, R.M. (2001). Ellerbeckia arenaria (Bacillariophyceae): formation of auxospores and initial cells. European Journal of Phycology 36: 307-320.