Pleodorina [SEP] parent taxon
Pleodorina
Pleodorina is a genus of colonial green algae in the family Volvocaceae. Description by Gilbert M. Smith (1920, pp 96–97).
"Pleodorina" Shaw 1894:
Colonies always motile; spherical to sub-spherical, with 32-128 cells lying some distance from one another just within the periphery of the homogeneous, hyaline, gelatinous, colonial envelope and not connected by cytoplasmic strands. Cells differentiated into those that are purely vegetative in character and those capable of dividing to form daughter colonies. All but four
4 to 16 separate cells, each with two flagella. Similarly, the genera "Eudorina" and "Pandorina" form hollow spheres, the former consisting of 16 cells, the latter of 32 to 64 cells. In these genera each cell can reproduce a new organism by mitosis.
Other genera of Volvocaceans represent another principle of biological development as each organism develops differented cell types. In "Pleodorina" and "Volvox", most cells are somatic and only a few are reproductive. In "Pleodorina californica" a colony