Abstract
A new genus of eustigmatophycean algae and its type species, Botryochloropsis similis, are described from a freshwater locality and from clonal culture. The small, spherical, vegetative cells are surrounded by a cell wall covered with mucilage, by which the cells are aggregated forming irregular colonies. The cells reproduce primarily by the formation of autospores; zoospores are less common. Under the light microscope this alga resembles Botryochloris minima Pascher (Xanthophyceae), but on the basis of its ultrastructure and pigment composition it belongs to the Eustigmatophyceae and not to the Xanthophyceae. The zoospore ultrastructure is similar to that of Pseudocharaciopsis ovalis (Chodat) Hibberd, with two emergent flagella of unequal diameter and length. The mastigoneme-bearing long flagellum has a characteristic swelling near its base, adjacent to the extraplastidial eyespot at the anterior end of the zoospore. An accessory chlorophyll pigment is absent; the major xanthophylls are violaxanthin and vaucheriaxanthin-ester. It is proposed that this alga be accommodated in the family Pseudocharaciopsidaceae Lee & Bold ex Hibberd.
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