A bit of a bitter sweet one this. I recently bought a slide of Stictodiscus nitidus by Watson and Sons Ltd. It was not well packaged – it was literally sent as a slide in some bubble wrap in an envelope, with nothing to provide strength or protection. Unsurprisingly it arrived smashed, with some pretty bad damage even in the middle where the diatom was. However I stuck the parts to a new glass slide, so I could take a good look at what was there. The 4x objective image shows the wider field of view. On the left hand side of the image, the mountant is still in contact with the coverslip. However in the middle where the diatom is, it has come away from the coverslip. I still went ahead and imaged it though, as the diatom itself was still intact. Olympus BHB microscope using 450nm LED light. 63x Leitz Pl Apo 1.4 objective, oil immersion. Olympus Aplanat Achromat condenser, oil immersion, oblique lighting. 2.5x Nikon CF PL photoeyepiece. Monochrome converted Nikon d850 camera. 23 images stacked in Zerene (Pmax).
Stictodiscus nitidus (Grove & Sturt) Schmidt, 1888. Published in: Schmidt, A., Schmitz, M., Fricke, F., Müller, O., Heiden, H. & Hustedt, F. (1874-1959). Atlas der Diatomaceen-Kunde. 4 Bands, pls. 1-480. . Leipzig. Plate 131 Figures 7-8, Plate 202 Figures 4-5. This name is currently regarded as a synonym of Stictodiscus californicus var. nitida Grove & Sturt, 1887. Published in: Grove, E. & Sturt, G. (1887). On a fossil marine Diatomaceous deposit from Oamaru, Otago, New Zealand. Part III. Journal of the Quekett Microscopical Club, Series 2 3: 63-78, pls 5,6. Page 66, Plate 5, Figure 7.
A sad one this. It was a nice slide of a fairly rare diatom, and it is now shards of glass. However I have done what I can to preserve what is on it.