Bibliographic Detail

Kraft, G.T. & Millar, A.J.K., 2005

Reference:
Kraft, G.T. & Millar, A.J.K. (2005). Struvea thoracica sp. nov. (Cladophorophyceae), a new deep-water chlorophyte from the Great Barrier Reef and New Caledonia. Phycologia 44: 305-311, 24 figs.

Publication Date:
10 May 2005

Abstract:
Struvea thoracica Kraft & Millar, sp. nov., is described from deep-water habitats along the mid-north to southern Great Barrier Reef and in New Caledonia. Plants reach 26 cm in length and at maturity consist of coarse fibrous blades to 2 mm in thickness, 18 cm in length, and 12 cm in width borne on simple to ramified stalks 818 cm in length and 2.5 mm in diameter. Organization of the blades is dorsiventral, with first-order laterals arising oppositely on axial bearing cells, the laterals in turn producing a further order of branches that are strongly curved ventrally. This results in a dorsal surface on which the primary laterals are evenly spaced, coarse, and prominently exposed, imparting the ribcaged appearance for which the alga is named. Cell division in all branch orders is segregative, as evidenced by the rounded cytoplasts that form distally within the walls of axial cells as they undergo their first cell divisions, as well as by the gaps left between the end walls of daughter cells and the lateral walls of the parent cells following cell divisions in higher branch orders, a feature also of the tenacula that occasionally form apically on second- and higher-order laterals. The new species is distinguished from the other two members of the genus (the type, S. plumosa Sonder, and S. elegans Børgesen) by its greater blade thickness, dorsiventrality of blade construction, and relatively few tenacular cells.