Difflugia baculosa
D. baculosa, from Schönborn, 1965

Difflugia baculosa  Schönborn, 1965

Diagnosis. The shell is cylindrical with parallel sides and a round fundus, showing slight degeneration at the pseudostome. The pseudostome itself is three-lobed. The test is entirely covered with quartz particles. The nucleus is located in the upper part of the shell and contains a variable number of nucleoli.

Dimensions.  Schönborn (1965): Shell length 90-95 µm; width 40-45 µm. My measurements: Length 66 µm and width 34 µm (n=1).

Ecology. Freshwater. Recorded from Poland and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Remarks. Schönborn (1965) describes the width of the test as approximately half its length. However, this does not align with his illustrations, which show relatively narrow shells, leading to  a somewhat distorted depiction. The shell I found, in sediment from a sinkhole cave in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also has a width about half its length. Notably, this shell is smaller than the dimensions reported by Schönborn.

Difflugia baculosa
D. baculosa, from a sample collected by Najla Baković in Ponor Kovači,  a sinkhole in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Difflugia baculosa
Schönborn’s 1965 drawings of the shells were modified to align with an L/B ratio of 2:1, which corresponds more closely to shells found in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ferry Siemensma, created June 5, 2019; last modified November 30, 2024
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