A = A living cell; B = Skeleton with seven spines (A=DIC, B=BF)
Life-form: Solitary flagellate
Size: 19-34 µm (including spines)
Resting spore:
Note: Naked stages and life history (see Henriksen et al.1993)
Distinctive features: Skeleton-bearing stage usually with hexagonal skeleton. Naked stage. Both stages with many chloroplasts
Similar species:
Distribution: Widely in cold and temperate waters
Literature:
Boney, A. D.1973. Observations on the silicoflagellate Dictyocha
speculum Ehrenb. from the Firth of Clyde. J. Mar. Biol. Ass. U.K.
53: 263-268.
Henriksen, P., Knipschildt, F., Moestrup, Ø. & Thomsen, H. A. 1993. Autecology, life history and toxicology of the silicoflagellate Dictyocha speculum (Silicoflagellata, Dictyochophyceae). Phycologia. 32: 29-39.
Throndsen, J. 1993. The planktonic marine flagellates. In: Marine Phytoplankton: a guide to naked flagellates and coccolithophorids/edited by Carmelo R. Tomas: 7-145.
Gemeinhardt, K.1930. Silicoflagellatae. Schiller, J. Coccolithineae. Rabenhorst's Kryptogamen-Flora., 10: 1-85