Species of Salpingoeca are separated from each other on the basis of habitat (marine or freshwater), cell size, and lorica characteristics e.g. length of stipe, shape of bell portion, presence or absence of coloration or decoration. These characteristics may or may not be the best ones to separate species; renewed research on morphological and molecular characteristics of salpingoecid choanoflagellates is needed.
A Choanoeca stage has been reported in the life history of a species of Pterospongia, a colonial codosigid choanoflagellate. Choanoeca differs from Salpingoeca only in the absence of a flagellum from the sessile stage. This result suggests that the taxonomy of, and phylogenetic relationships among, choanoflagellate species is more complex than morphological studies on single life history stages indicate. In particular, it may be that the families Codosigidae(Monosigidae) and Salpingoecidae are inappropriately separated.
Return to summary information