Systematic Anatomy of the Red Algal Genus Rbodopeltist

AT PRESENT five species are known in the genus Rb odopeltis, which belongs to the red algal order, Cryptonemiales. Of these, Rbodopeltis anstralis was first found in Australia, and the other four species, R. borealis, R. setchelliae, R. liagoroides, and R. gracilis all grow in the southern islands of Japan and were described by Yamada. The first description of a species of the genus Rh odopeltis was made by Harvey (1 859, 1863), when he described a red alga, Amphiroa australis Sond., with a tiny red alga, Rhodopeltis australis Harv., parasitic on it. This description was accompanied by a beautifully colored illustration. In that illustration, on the heart-shaped segment of Amphiroa australis, an elliptical, dense, scarlet-colored part was delineated as a parasitic alga. About this parasitic red alga he said, " I have puzzled where to place the curious little parasite here represented. In the structure of the skin-like frond there is a near agreement with Crnoria, so much so that at first I referred it to that genus. " A mphiroa australis, which was regarded as a host plant by Harvey, had been described by Sonder (1845), and this was followed by Harvey. Kiitzing (1858) treated this asa new genus different from Amphiroa. Weber van Bosse ( 1904 ) , who agreed with Kiitzing, made a new genus for it called Litbnrtberon, while Schmitz (1889) published the assertion that Rh odopeltis asstralis is not a parasite but only nernathecia of Amphiroa anstralis, which was taken for a host plant. Since 1892, when Schmitz mentioned that the genus Rh odopeltis contains only one species, R. australis, no new species was discovered until 1931, when among specimens collected at Ryusensui and Kot osho, Formosa, one quite similar to R. australis but smaller was found