Description of Tessellaria
provided by BioPedia
Colonial flagellates with many tightly packed cells which are attached in the colony centre, colony more or less spherical; colony surrounded by diffuse gelatinous matrix with plate and spine scales embedded in the gel; two subequal flagella extend through the scale layers and beat heterodynamically beyond the gel matrix; two chloroplasts in the anterior of the cell; contractile vacuoles in the posterior of the cell; cysts unknown; type species: Tessellaria volvocina (Playfair 1915) Playfair 1918.
