On the identity of the Heliozoan Pinaciophora fluviatilis and Potamodiscus kalbei, with the description of eight new Pinaciophora species

Although first interpreted as a centric diatom P. kalbei Gerloff (1968) was later shown to be a scale-covered colorless unicell of apparently cosmopolitan distribution but with uncertain taxonomic affinities. Evidence is given that the organism is identical with the heliozoan P. fluviatilis Greeff (1873) sensu Penard (1904). During examination of a large number of whole mounts prepared for EM, mainly on the basis of sea-water samples from Danish marine localities, a large number of scales attributable to the genus Pinaciophora were observed. These scales fall within 10 well defined taxonomic entities, of which only P. fluviatilis Greeff (syn. Potamodiscus kalbei Gerloff and P. spiculata Manton (1978) were observed previously. [The 8 new species were: P. denticulata, P. tridentata, P. bifurcata, P. candelabrum, P. triangula, P. monopora, P. paucipora and P. multicosta.].