It has been considered that genus Cosmarium including Staurastrum had the problems in grouping by morphological characters. Sequence data for the Cytochrome Oxidase subunit III (coxIII) were employed to compare with taxa of two divisions of this genus, with sections in each, for evaluating the taxonomic stability of these morphological characters. The division and section systems were not coincided with the phylogeny inferred from coxIII sequences, as the previous reports from us using nuclear rDNA ITS and chloroplast rbcL sequence comparisons in this genus. Two taxa of Staurastrum were not placed within a same clade each other, and one taxon of these was grouped in Arthrodesmus clade. Two genera, Cosmarium and Staurastrum, cannot be regarded as monophyletic from this result. Mitochondrial coxIII gene was considered as a useful phylogenetic tool to evaluate evolutionary relationships of desmids as in the case of land plants.