Caloglossa continua (Okamura) R. J. King & Puttock

Ganesan, E. K., West, John A. & Jr, Orlando Necchi, 2018, A catalogue and bibliography of non-marine (freshwater and estuarine) Rhodophyta (red algae) of India, Phytotaxa 364 (1), pp. 1-48 : 23

Caloglossa continua (Okamura) R. J. King & Puttock

Mukhopadhyay & Pal 2002, p. 100, fig. 3, i–iii; Pl. 3, a, b; Mukhopadhyay et al. 2003, p. 72.

Distribution in India: West Bengal (South and North 24-Parganas of Hugly river estuary; Matla-Bidya estuary).

Notes: The type locality of this species is from a freshwater river in Aichi, Japan and only vegetative plants without reproductive structures are reported commonly ( Kumano 2002). The Indian record is from estuarine and coastal areas of North and South 24 Paraganas in the Hugly river, West Bengal, India. King & Puttock (1994), based on a dozen gross morphological variations (Table. 4 in King & Puttock loc. cit.) recognized four dissimilar subspecies i.e. (i) ssp. continua , (ii) ssp. axillaris , (iii) ssp. saigonensis and (iv) ssp. postiae . Some authors ( Wynne & De Clerck 1999; Kumano 2002) treat the ssp. saigonensis as a separate species from C. continua . For more information on C. continua from other latitudes, reference can be made to the publications of Kamiya et al. (1997; 1999). The latter paper in particular detailed extensively the reproductive and genetic variation between the broad and narrow forms. On the basis of their obervations, Kamiya et al. (1999) elevated the sub-species postiae to the status of species, C. postiae Kamiya & King. If the Indian plants are shown to belong to the subsp. postiae , then they have to be assigned to C. postiae . We are unable to assess currently the specific or varietal status of the Indian record due to the brief details provided by Mukhopadhyay & Pal (2002).