In the study of diatoms of the genus Meridion in samples from modern reservoirs on Unalashka Island (Aleutian Islands, USA), an employee of the IEE RAS Neplyukhina A.A. and an employee of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov, Doctor of Biological Sciences Chudaev D.A. discovered and described two species of this genus new to science - Meridion tenuipes and Meridion humerosum. The specific epithets chosen by the authors fairly accurately reflect the morphological features of the valves of these taxa. Meridion tenuipes - "narrow-legged" - is characterized by a long and downwardly drawn lower part of the valve. Meridion humerosum - "shouldered" - differs from other representatives of the genus by a noticeable expansion of the valve below the head. In addition, the article presents a comparison of new taxa with already known representatives of this genus, based on photographs obtained using light and scanning electron microscopy.
The valves of M. tenuipes and M. humerosum are currently recorded only in samples from one fresh water body on Unalaska Island. The data obtained confirm the high degree of endemism of representatives of the genus Meridion in North America.
The study was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project No. 20-34-90011.
The work was published in Phytotaxa: Neplyukhina A., Chudaev D. (2023) Two new species of the diatom genus Meridion (Bacillariophyta, Tabellariaceae) from Aleutian Islands. Phytotaxa 587 (1): 21-30.
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