Ref ID : 2359
Frederick C. Page and S.M. Blakey; Cell surface structure as a taxonomic character in the Thecamoebidae (Protozoa: Gymnamoebia). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 66(2):113-135, 1979
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Amoebae of the genera Thecamoeba, Platyamoeba, and Vannella, family Thecamoebidae, have a surface layer which in one or more species of each genus has been found cytochemically to be a glycocalyx or mucoid coating. In six species of Thecamoeba, this is a compact coat, sometimes with a less dense outer region, 16-73 nm thick according to species. T. proteoides, in other respects intermediate between Thecamoeba and Amoeba, has a filamentous layer up to 78 nm thick, somewhat like those of Amoeba and Chaos. T. granifera has a coating or tegument more than 0.5 µm thick, differing structurally and cytochemically from the glycocalyces of the other species, and is the type-species of a new genus Dermamoeba. All six species of Platyamoeba investigated, freshwater and marine, had similar glycocalyces, consisting of a thin, dense inner layer and a thicker, lighter, outer layer. Two species of Vannella from North America bear complex structures here called glycostyles, corresponding in structure and size to those of V. simplex from Germany. There is an essential similarity between most species of Thecamoeba and the related Sappinia. Surface structure distinguishes clearly between Platyamoeba and Vannella but does not support fragmentation of the genus Platyamoeba. Although surface structure is of considerable taxonomic value at the generic level in the Thecamoebidae and may assist in confirming identification of some Thecamoeba species, it is less promising for differentiation of species within Platyamoeba and Vannella.