auxospore

In conjugation, two cells open and secrete a gelatinous mass from which an auxospore is formed.

In the figure one valve alone of the auxospore is seen, the opposite valve not being in focus.

The valves of the auxospore are usually more or less arcuate, as in Cymbella, to which the genus is closely allied.

The sagittal plane of the valve of the auxospore is at right angles to the plane of the valve of the mother cell.

On the diminution in size having reached a limit in any species, the maximum size is regained by the formation of an auxospore.