Haeckel, 1879
Diagnosis
Phaeodarians lacking a self-secreted skeleton. In some forms, foreign siliceous particles (usually siliceous skeletons of other organisms such as diatoms, polycystine radiolarians, silicoflagellates, or sponge spicules) may be irregularly distributed in the extracapsular cytoplasm. The foreign skeletons may belong to a single species or be a mixed assemblage. Forms harboring foreign siliceous bodies have also been placed in the family Caementellidae Borgert (1909a), now placed in synonymy with the Phaeodinidae by Cachon-Enjumet (1961). Specimens of this family may resemble fecal pellets or organic aggregates (Gowing and Coale, 1989). Hertwig (1879) and Haeckel (1887) described a number of phaeodarian species bearing essentially monospecific silicoflagellate assemblages in the genera Cannopilus, Distephanus, Dictyocha, and Mesocena, which were originally erected for individual silicoflagellate tests. Haeckel (1879) described the family Cannorhaphidae to accommodate these species. Borgert (1890) recognized that many of these forms were a separate group of flagellates and separated them from the Radiolaria. Some genera and species not tied to monospecific assemblages of silicoflagellates remain in the family Cannorhaphidae (see e.g. Borgert, 1909a), but many of them have never been illustrated, and the status of the family remains in some doubt. Most or all of the remaining cannorhaphid species would now be placed in the family Phaeodinidae.
Species treated:
Phaeodina ambigua (Borgert)
Phaeodina antarctica (Schröder)
Phaeodina loricata (Borgert)
Phaeodina tripylea Haeckel