Acanthocystis elenazhivotovae Leonov, 2010
Diagnosis: Cell diameter 22-25 µm. Periplast with tangential plate-scales and radial spine-scales. Spine-scales 3.2-6.0 µm, 2–3 short bluntly terminated branches at the apex. The basal plate is rounded, 0.8–0.9 µm in diameter. Plate-scales elliptical or oval, size 2.5-2.8 x 1.6-1.8 µm, ornamented with radially located branching grooves and a well-pronounced axial thickening.
Ecology: Freshwater. In benthic sample from a shallow boggy water body (Borok village, Russia).
Remarks: It has an identical structure of the plate-scales of A. quadrifurca (Nicholls, 1983), however, the apexes of the spine-scales of the latter branches into 4 thin branches, while in A. elenazhivotovae, the apexes of the spine-scales bear 2 or 3 short bluntly terminated teeth. In addition, the minimum length of the spine-scales of the type described above is 3.2 µm, while A. quadrifurca does not have spine-scales shorter than 5 µm.
