Some freshwater species difficult to identify. Please help me find this species.
I do not mean to be discouraging but many of the objects photographed are not diatoms but other organisms. The images that do depict diatoms unfortunately do not display the key details required to identify them to the species level. Fortunately there are methods to overcome these obstacles.
First, diatom valves must be cleaned, a process that destroys most things that aren't diatoms or inorganic soil particles. This vastly simplifies the question of what is or is not a diatom. Here a couple good methods are described-
https://diatoms.org/practitioners/how-to-clean-diatom-samples
Then cleaned material should be mounted in a medium with a high refractive index, otherwise key detail will not be visible. Here is a link to a page describing this process in detail-
https://diatoms.org/practitioners/how-to-make-permanent-diatom-microslides
I will say that the specimen in the third image can be identified to the genus level, and it is an Eunotia.
Respected Lane Allen,
Greetings! Thank you for your support and help. I will following your suggestion for future diatoms research.
By,
S. Vijayan
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