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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 4816

Karl G. Grell; A Species of Thalassomyxa (Promycetozoida) from the North Coast of Jamaica. Arch.Protistenk 142:15-27, 1992

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Like the type species, Thalassomyxa australis (Grell 1985), Thalassomyxa jamaicensis n. sp. displays a periodic change between a motile and a resting phase. The two species show characteristic differences in the stages of both phases. A specific peculiarity of Thalassomyxa jamaicensis n. sp. is the pheomenon that the stages of the resting phase undergo equal, unequal or multiple divisions. When diatoms (Amphiprora sp.) are used as food organisms, all divisional types lead to small, almost equal-sized products which detach from the substrate, round off and float in the seawater (floating spheres, tomites). This comes about when the diatom lawn becomes exhausted. If fed with flagellates (Dunaliella sp., Pyrenomonas sp.), no floating spheres are formed, but the divisions of the resting stages permit a multiplication of the species and make its cultivation possible.