Difflugia
The Difflugia is a genus of single-celled, amoeba beschalter. They are the namesake genus of the group of Difflugina. With more than 300 described species, they are also the largest genus of Arcellinida.
Features
The housing of the representatives of the Difflugia is always in a structured or in the platelet agglutinates from mineral particles or diatoms in an organic binder. In many Difflugia the selection and arrangement of the material is species specific. The mouth opening may be round, oval, toothed, lobed or terminal - only split mouth openings do not occur.
The nucleus usually belongs to the ovular type, ie contains many nucleoli, only a few species belonging to the vesicular type with only one nucleolus.
Ecology
Difflugia have diverse habitats, many species are found in the sediments of fresh water or between water plants, some live planktonic or in dry mosses. Some freshwater species have photosynthesierende symbionts. They feed mainly on algae and fungi.
System
The genus was first described in 1815 by Leclerc, type species is Difflugia proteiformis. With more than 300 described species and over 200 other Untertaxa they are the largest genus of Arcellinida. However, the internal classification of Difflugia is considered extremely inconsistent because many of the taxa are historical and have only inadequate diagnoses.
Some types are:
- Difflugia proteiformis
- Difflugia corona
- Difflugia lucida
- Difflugia hydrostatica
- Difflugia urceolata
- Difflugia globulosa
- Difflugia smilion
- Difflugia acuminata
- Difflugia bacillifera