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Noctiluca

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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Noctiluca

 

a genus of protozoa of the class Mastigophora of the order Dinoflagellata. The spherical body is 2 to 3 mm in diameter and has a mobile, contractive flagellum. The animal reproduces by mitosis or by forming small buds, about 20 μm long, on the body surface. The cytoplasm is filled with fatty substances that oxidize and glow when irritated chemically or mechanically. (Experiments have shown that the substances react similarly to electric stimuli.) The Noctiluca are among the principal organisms that cause luminescence of the sea. They form clusters on the surface of warm or, less frequently, boreal waters. In the USSR the organisms are found in the Black Sea and the seas of the Far East.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
Pelagia noctiluca Akdeniz'de son derece yaygin ve goze carpan bir turdur.
The researchers began to see vast blooms of Noctiluca and a steep drop in diatoms and dissolved oxygen in the water column.
2012 Impact of artificial light on the distribution of the common European glow-worm, Lampyris noctiluca (Coleoptera: Lampyridae).
Swarming of Noctiluca in the Palk Bay and its effect on the "Choodai" fishery with a note on the possible use of Noctiluca as an indicator species.
B 1.2 M P 1 Noctiluca scintillans (Macartney) R,B 11.2 H P 1 Kofoid et Swezy * Oodinium sp.
The SOA notice said that the red tide was caused by a bloom of Noctiluca scintillan, a species of algae.
The Marine Institute said the sightings is are most likely due to a bioluminescent plankton called Noctiluca scintillans - sometimes known as Sea Ghost or Fire of Sea.
The very frequent species were represented by the dinoflagellates: Ceratocorys horrida Stein, Pyrocystis noctiluca Murray ex Haeckel, Ceratium contortum var.
A couple of days later however, at a larger cove near the town of Soller, little groups of Mauve Stingers (Pelagia Noctiluca) could already be seen bobbing in the shallows along the beach.
Blooms of other cyanobacteria (Microcystis, Anabaena, Trichodesmium) as well as of diatoms (Coscinodiscus, Bellerochea, Chaetocerus, Cerautolina) and dinoflagellates (Ceratium, Noctiluca) have also been reported in waters of south-western Nigeria (Nwankwo, 1993; Nwankwo et al., 2003, 2004; Onyema & Nwankwo, 2006).
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