Chamaesiphonosira cymbellicola n.gen., n.sp., ein knospenbildendes Bakterium,und sein spezialisierter Epiphytismus

The organism shows long-conical, colourless cells of bacterial size, affixed with the broader basis and cutting off buds from the free apex in numbers as high as 30, which form a chain and later separate. Multiplication is entirely by budding. Some resemblance to Cyanophycean cells, in particular to the exosporangia of Chamaesiphon, seems to be cytologically not verified. The organism grows exclusively on living cells of the diatom Cymbella cesati, and is fixed to them principally on the edges of the valvae. In spite of the presence of many other similar diatom species, the organism represents a remarkable case of extremely specialized epiphytism. There are no signs of damage of the “host” cell, in cell division the epiphyte is taken over by the epithecae of the daughter cells. Systematically the species because of practical reasons can be included into the Caulobacterales sensu Henrici and Johnson (1935). A second species, obviously belonging in here, is represented by Chamaesiphon hyalinus Scherffel (1907).