Monday 14 January 2019

A green diatom...

We're into the depths of winter here in Manitoba and my favorite haunts are sitting under a couple of feet of ice. The mini and micro aquariums have basically died out except for the odd rotifer or ciliate. All except for one little jar, where it seems conditions are ripe for a number of diatoms. With not much else to look at I've started reading about, and focusing my photography efforts on, diatoms.



No idea what this specie or even genus is but I was struck by the fact the chlorophyll withing the frustule was green. Based on observations and my reading this is a fairly rare occurrence.
It wasn't moving so it may belong to the genera that lack raphe or it just may be dead and perhaps the green color is an artifact resulting from that.




I thought this specimen was rather neat in that the shape was so different than anything else I had seen before. It was moving so it is a member of the diatoms with at least one raphe.This is possibly an individual from Achnanthes inflata.

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