Sphaenosiphon prasinus Reinsch, 1875: 17, Melanophyceae pl. XXVI: fig. 1 (lectotype locality: Adriatic Sea fide Drouet & Daily, 1956: 111, 114).
Dermocarpa prasina (Reinsch) Bornet & Thuret, 1880: 73.—Barton, 1893: 53.— Delf & Michell, 1921: 91.
INDIAN OCEAN DISTRIBUTION: South Africa.
Note: Reinsch's description and figures suggest that this species is unicellular, but Ardré (1960), after studying French and Portuguese material, concluded that the cells were joined in a pseudoparenchymatous thallus embedded in mucilage. It should be noted, however, that the specimen (in PC) that Ardré considered the type (epiphytic on Catenella opuntia collected by Bornet at Le Croisic, Loire-Atlantique, France, in September 1873) is merely the one described in Bornet & Thuret (1880: 76) and not one of Reinsch's original collections, which probably represent more than one species. Drouet & Daily (1956: 111, 114) chose as lectotype a specimen in K (now in BM) from the Adriatic Sea, a locality included in the protologue, and assigned it to Entophysalis conferta (Kützing) Drouet & Daily.