Bacillaria paxillifer


Bacillaria paxillifer is a colonial diatom species in the family Bacillariaceae. Bacillaria paxillifer is homotypic with Bacillaria paradoxa, but B. paxillifera is the correct name.
Bacillaria have a unique form of colonial motility among diatoms. Individual cells slide against their neighbors in a coordinated fashion, allowing the entire structure to expand or contract.

Taxonomy

Bacillaria paxillifer was originally described under the name Vibrio paxillifer by Otto Frederick Müller in 1786. It is the first diatom species known to be described. It was separately described two years later by Johann Friedrich Gmelin as Bacillaria paradoxa. The correct name, Bacillaria paxillifera N.I.Hendey., was established based on rules of priority.