Eustimatophytes are yellow-green unicells that occur in freshwater, brackish water, and seawater as well as in the soil. The cells are similar to those in the Xanthophyceae, but differ in having an eyespot outside the chloroplast (Fig. 12.1) (the eyespot in the Xanthophyceae is in the chloroplast) (Hibberd and Leedale, 1970). Other characteristics of the class include a basal swelling of the tinsel flagellum adjacent to the eyespot, only chlorophyll a, chloroplasts without girdle lamellae and no peripheral ring of DNA, and chloroplast endoplasmic reticulum not connected to the nuclear envelope (Schnepf et al., 1996).

The eyespot (Figs. 12.1, 12.2) is a large orangered body at the anterior of the motile cell and is completely independent of the chloroplast. It consists of an irregular group of droplets with no membrane around the whole complex of droplets. The flagellar sheath is extended to form a T-shaped flagellar swelling at the base of the tinsel flagellum (Figs. 12.1, 12.2). This swelling is always closely appressed to the plasmalemma in the region of the eyespot. In turn, in the eyespot there is a large droplet closely applied to the plasmalemma in the area of the flagellar swelling.

The chloroplasts of the Eustigmatophyceae have chlorophyll a and β-carotene, with the two major xanthophylls being violaxanthin and vaucheriaxanthin (Whittle and Casselton, 1969 ; Antia and Cheng, 1982), the only difference in pigments compared to the Xanthophyceae being the presence of violaxanthin and the absence of antheraxanthin. Violaxanthin is the major lightharvesting pigment in the Eustigmatophyceae (Owens et al., 1987).

The Eustigmatophyceae is a monophyletic group (Andersen et al., 1998). Most of the species produce zoospores with only a single emergent flagellum (Pleurochloris magna, Fig. 12.1(d) ; Polyhedriella helvetica, Fig. 12.1(b))(Hibberd and Leedale, 1972), but there is a second basal body present, indicating that the cells had a biflagellate ancestor. The emergent flagellum is tinsel with microtubular hairs, and the flagellum is inserted subapically. Two of the algae in the class, Ellipsoidion acuminatum and Pseudocharaciopsis texensis (Fig. 12.2) (Lee and Bold, 1973), have zoospores with a long forward tinsel flagellum and a short posteriorly directed smooth flagellum.