Scrippsiella cf. acuminata (Ehrenberg) Kretschmann, Elbrachter, Zinssmeister, Soehner, Kirsch, Kusber & Gottschling, 2015

Nunes, Caio Ceza da Silva, Susini-Ribeiro, Sylvia Maria Moreira & Cavalcante, Kaoli Pereira, 2019, Dinoflagellates in tropical estuarine waters from the Maraú River, Camamu Bay, northeastern Brazil, Check List 15 (5), pp. 951-963 : 953-954

Scrippsiella cf. acuminata (Ehrenberg) Kretschmann, Elbrachter, Zinssmeister, Soehner, Kirsch, Kusber & Gottschling, 2015

Figure 2A

Brazil, estuary of Maraú River: Mixing Zone Station 2: 14°04′52″S, 038°59′12″W, I.2007 (HUESC 24055).

Epitheca conical with convex margins and a short apical process, hypotheca rounded, cingulum equatorial and slightly excavated. TL: 35 μm, TW: 20 μm (n = 1).

Taxonomic remarks. The only specimen observed is clearly assigned to S. acuminata -like cells due to its shape, size, and cytological features. However, due to its rarity in the samples we could not observe diacritical thecal features that accurately confirm its specific identity. Scrippsiella acuminata is widely distributed in the coastal regions of the world, usually identified as Scrippsiella trochoidea (Stein) Balech ex Loeblich III. However, Kretschmann et al. (2015) showed that Peridinium acuminatum Ehrenberg (the basionym of S. acuminata ) and S. trochoidea are conspecific and considered S. trochoidea to be a later heterotypic synonym of the former.

Distribution in Brazil: coastal regions of Pará, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul; cited as S. trochoidea ( Flora do Brasil 2019).