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Name derivation:
“True capsule” (From the Greek eu –true, and kapsa, a box, capsule)
Classification:
Eucapsis Clements and Shantz 1909; 11 of 17 species descriptions are currently accepted taxonomically (Guiry and Guiry 2013). Order Synechococcales; Family Merismopediaceae
Morphology:
Roughly cubic colonies resulting from the division in three planes of the spherical to oval cells arranged in perpendicular rows within mucilage.
Similar genera:
At least one species of Eucapsis is synonymous with Chroococcus cf. minor (Komárková et al. 2010).
Habitat:
Free floating around and among aquatic macrophytes in bogs and swamps. Most species known from acidic and cold (stenothermal) swamps, peaty pools, raised bogs and clear lakes (mainly in temperate to subpolar zones), including the type species E. alpine; one species is described from volcanic soils, one from slightly alkaline waters (swamps with aquatic plants, channels, lakes, pools) of tropical and warmer areas of the temperate zone; 2 species are halophilic (Guiry and Guiry 2013). Eucapsis sp. is present in cryptoendolithic (growing within sandstone) in the Ross Desert, Antarctica (Friedmann et al. 1988).
References:
Friedmann, E.I., M. Hua and R. Ocampo-Friedmann 1988. Cryptoendolithic lichen and cyanobacterial communities of the Ross Desert, Antarctica. Polarforschung 58(2/3):251-259. Graham, L.E. and L.W. Wilcox. 2000. Algae. Prentice Hall. Guiry, M.D. and G.M. Guiry 2013. AlgaeBase. World-wide electronic publication, National University of Ireland, Galway. http://www.algaebase.org; searched on 04 September 2013. Jaeger E. C. 1972. A source-book of biological names and terms. 3^rd Ed. Charles C. Thomas Publisher Komárková, j., J Jezberov, O Komárek and E Zapomělová 2010. Variability of Chroococcus (Cyanobacteria) morphospecies with regard to phylogenetic relationships. Hydrobiologia 639(1):69-83. Wehr, J.D. and R.G. Sheath 2003. Freshwater Algae of North America. Academic Press (Imprint of Elsevier)
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