Tetradesmus

The genus Tetradesmus was described by Gilbert Morgan Smith, containing the single species Tetradesmus wisconsinensis. It was not universally accepted; Robert Hippolyte Chodat synonymized the genus into Scenedesmus, while George Stephen West accepted the genus as separate from Scenedesmus.^[4]

In the 2000s, molecular data revealed found that Scenedesmus was polyphyletic. Scenedesmus was subsequently split up into several genera, corresponding to the former subgenera Scenedesmus, Desmodesmus, and Acutodesmus.^[4] As Tetradesmus species are phylogenetically closely related to species once placed in Scenedesmus subgenus Acutodesmus, the genus Acutodesmus was raised to genus rank and Tetradesmus was placed as a synonym of Acutodesmus.^[5] However, since the name Tetradesmus was published before the genus combination Acutodesmus was made, this meant that the name Tetradesmus had priority Therefore, species in Acutodesmus were renamed to Tetradesmus.^[6]