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
H. petricola

3

 Shell wine red, with yellow lip H. rosea

-

 Shell purple red to purple, without yellow lip H. petricola var. amethystea

 

Heleopera

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