Portrait

Description:

Portrait (lateral view) of the chaetophoralean alga, Aphanochaete polychaete (Fritsch, 1902). A. polychate is epiphytic on filamentous algae (in this case Oedegonium). The cells are cylindrical to cuboid, bearing more than one clear seta with a bulbous base (some cells here appear to have only one seta, the others being out of the focal plane of the image ). The multiple setae of A. polychaete differentiate it from A. repens which has only one seta per cell. The cells arrange themselves in files with short branches along the long axis of their host algal filament. Collected from a freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho June 2004. DIC optics.