An SEM Analysis Of Amphipleura pellucida with New Findings

For many years, as long ago as 1872, the Amphipleura pellucida (Ap) diatom striae and punctae have been an intense object for measuring the quality of resolution of the light microscope (LM). More recent publications have also referenced Ap and the difficulty of resolving its punctae. Thus, from 1872 to 1947,much attention was directed towards Ap but without paying much attention to its detailed valve structure. This was probably due to lack of resolution of LM to reveal the details for the Ap punctae (pores). Work by Stoermer and Pankratz did TEM analysis of Ap in 1964. While their results and mine do not agree, this could be attributed to specimen preparation and the source of the diatoms. However, there is an heretofore unresolved issue about the physical differences of Ap from different geographic locations. My current work should resolve this issue. This started as a challenge about whether Ap could be selectively oriented inside up or inside down.