Desmids from Thailand and Malaysia

Contr. biol. Lab. Kyoto Univ., Vol. 28. pp. 1-98, Pls. 1-51 Issued 25 March 1992
Desmids from Thailand and Malaysia
Minoru HiRANo
ABSTRACT To increase our level of knowledge on a desmid flora of Southeast Asia,
the present paper reports 663 taxa of 27 genera on the basis of collections from Thailand
and Malaysia. The collections include 16 new taxa (i.e., eight new species, seven new
varieties and one new form), and 99 "tropical" taxa. A few noticeable taxa and specimens
are also discussed in terms of geography, taxonomy and morphology.
KEYWORDS DesmidfFloralMalaysialThailand
Introduction
The first knowledge on the desmid flora of Thailand was given by W. & G. S. West
(1901) based upon the material from Koh Chang, a small island on the Gulf of Siam. Since
then I have published two papers on the desmid flora of this geographical area based upon
the material collected by Dr. Gentaro Imadate (now Tokyo Medical and Dental University),
a former member of the "Joint Thai-Japanese Biological Expedition to Southeast Asia 1961-
62" (Hirano, 1967), and by Dr. Motoharu Okamura, A former member of the "Kochi Uni-
versity Expedition 1970" (Hirano, 1975). The samples of the latter were collected from
Lake Boraphet (Bung Boraphet) in the central plain of Thailand.
The desmid fiora of the adjacent areas were also published by several algologists:
Sumatra, Java and Bali in Indonesia (Krieger, 1932); South Borneo (Kalimantan), Sumatra
and Java in Indonesia (Scott & Prescott, 1961); Cambodia (Hirano, 1972). The samples
from Cambodia were collected by Dr. Masao Ohno in 1969 (the "Kochi Univ. Exped.
1969").
Those last several years, I have examined the algal samples from Thailand and the
Malay Peninsula (including a few samples from Malaysia) hold in my possession. The
sources are as follows:
66).
1) Dr. Kitagawa's collection from Thailand (9 stations; see List of stations in 1965-
These samples were collected by Dr. Naofumi Kitagawa, of Nara University of Educa-
tion, Nara, who was a member of the "Kyoto University Biological Expedition to Thailand
and Malaysia in 1965-66". The desmid species I have detected from this collection are
rather limited.
2) Hirano's collection from Thailand and Malaysia (45 stations; see List of stations in
1967).
These samples were collected by myself when I was a member of the "Kyoto University
Biological Expedition to Thailand and Malaysia in 1967", which was conducted by a guid-
ance of the Royal Forest Department of Thailand. The stations surveyed covered both
mainland and the Malay Peninsula of Thailand and a part of Malaysia.
A total of 663 taxa of desmids have been identified in my samples examined of Thailand
Malaysia. Among them 318 taxa should be added to the previous knowledge of the desmid