ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the taxonomy of halophilic bacteria and the things that need to be done. The reader is strongly advised to accept a polythetic view, which means that no single character or character group should be used as the ultimate decision maker. In addition, the work of Tomlinson and Hochstein, Colwell et al., Vreeland et al., Soliman and Triiper, and others has shown that halophilic bacteria have a greater diversity than was once thought. The interesting thing is that from the outset, everyone realized that halophilic bacteria were unique. The unfortunate aspect of all of this work is that none have truly served their purpose to help clarify the taxonomy of the extreme halophiles. Halophilic bacteria produce an astonishing array of colonial types ranging from pigmented to nonpigmented, opaque to transparent, and small to large. One of the areas in which halophile taxonomy has been most lax is test selection.
