Guide to Skabitschewskia

Skabitschevskia was established in 2015 to accommodate taxa previously placed in Planothidium. It includes taxa possessing uniseriate striae on the raphe valve and biseriate striae and a cavum on the rapheless valve. The frustules are almost flat, or have very slightly concave raphe valves and convex rapheless valves. In girdle view, the frustules may be linear, or slightly bent. The valve outline is elliptic-lanceolate to lanceolate. Valve apices vary from rounded to capitate.

The genus includes a large number of species described from Lake Baikal (Kulikovskiy et al. 2015). North American taxa include S. peragalloi and S. oestrupii, species that are found in oligotrophic streams of the alpine and Arctic.