貝甲上的藻類

Algae growing on zoic shells

Upon observing the algal growth in the small artificial pond, located just in front of the morphological laboratory of the Botany Department of National Taiwan University, the writer became interested in the filamentous algae growing on snail shells. He began to collect the interesting epizoic algae from the previous mentioned pond, as well as from rivers near the cities of Nantou and Suao, these were growing attached to the river snail (Viviparus malleatus), and he also collected algae from the pond tortoise (Cyclenus flavemarquetama) at the Taipei Zoo. The writer has carefully studied these preserved samples and has also cultured these algae for six months, so has had an opportunity to observe them. On the shell of pond snail (Radix ollula), the writer observed that the attached globose or flattened green masses are Chaetophora elegans. The dichotomous filaments of this alga spread out from the center of the gelatinous colony; those in the upper part of the tufts are more branched, ending in pointed cells some of the apical cells are extended as long, straight hairs toward the margin of the colony.