First record of Terpsinoë musica Ehrenberg (Bacillariophyta) from Uganda and South Africa

Check List 22(5): 848-860, doi: 10.15560/22.5.848

First record of Terpsinoë musica Ehrenberg (Bacillariophyta) from Uganda and South Africa

Elysée Rutakaza Nzigire^‡§|, Jonathan C. Taylor^¶#, Ruan C. J. Koen^¶, Maarten Van Steenberge^|¤, Hocein Bazairi^«§, Christine Cocquyt^»

‡ Center of Research in Hydrobiology, Uvira, Democratic Republic of the Congo§ Laboratory of Biodiversity, Ecology and Genome, Faculty of Sciences, Mohammed V University in Rabat, Rabat, Morocco| Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium¶ Unit for Environmental Science and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa# South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity, Makhanda, South Africa¤ Operational Directorate Taxonomy and Phylogeny, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels, Belgium« Natural Sciences and Environment Research Hub, University of Gibraltar, Europa Point Campus, Gibraltar, Gibraltar» Research Department, Meise Botanic Garden, Meise, Belgium

Corresponding author: Elysée Rutakaza Nzigire ( nzigirerutakaza@gmail.com )

Academic editor: Luciane Fontana da Silva

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Nzigire ER, Taylor JC, Koen RCJ, Van Steenberge M, Bazairi H, Cocquyt C (2026) First record of Terpsinoë musica Ehrenberg (Bacillariophyta) from Uganda and South Africa. Check List 22(5): 848-860. https://doi.org/10.15560/22.5.848

Abstract

African records of Terpsinoë musica Ehrenberg are scarce and mainly restricted to North and West Africa, with previous East African reports limited to Ethiopia and fossil material from Kenya. Here, we extend the geographic distribution of this species in Africa by including two new observations in East and Southern Africa: the first observation of the species in Uganda (East Africa) was in the guts of Oreochromis leucostictus collected from Lake George. The observation from South Africa is based on material collected from the Nsikazi River. Light and scanning electron microscopy investigations confirmed the identification and revealed predominantly isolated frustules in the samples. These findings expand the known African distribution of T. musica and provide additional information on its morphology and ecology.

Keywords

Africa, benthic diatoms, distribution, morphology