Heleopera petricola var. amethystea - stacked image
Genus Heleopera Leidy, 1879
Diagnosis: shell always laterally compressed; aperture terminal, lenticular or slit-shaped, with a thin but distinct organic rim; colorless or yellowish, but with reddish or purple species; test composed of collected euglyphid body plates, mineral particles or diatoms, these materials often coated and reinforced with siliceous material; nucleus ovular.
Ecology: sediments, mosses (Sphagnum) and soil.
Key to the species:
1 |
Shell colorless or yellowish to brownish yellow | 2 |
- |
Shell wine red to purple red or purple |
3
|
2 |
Shell yellow to brown yellow, hardly covered with xenosomes; protoplasm with zoochlorellae |
H. sphagni |
- |
Shell colorless, usually covered with many xenosomes | |
3 |
Shell wine red, with yellow lip | H. rosea |
- |
Shell purple red to purple, without yellow lip | H. petricola var. amethystea |
Heleopera, with broad slit
Heleopera petricola, with split-shaped pseudostome - stacked image
Heleopera - stacked image
Heleopera petricola - stacked image
Published: Oct. 21, 2016, last updated: Mar. 13, 2018