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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 7804

Thomas K. Sawyer; Isolation and identification of free-living marine amoebae from upper Chesapeake Bay, Maryland. Trans.Amer.Micros.Soc. 90(1):43-51, 1971

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Free-living amoebae were collected from low salinity sea water (16 0/00 or less) sampled during spring, fall, and winter. Water samples from the Tred Avon River, upper Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, had eight genera of marine amoebae, i.e., Mayorella, Vexillifera, Hyalodiscus, Vannella, Thecamoeba, Cochliopodium, Rugipes, and Trichamoeba. Other small limax amoebae, possibly belonging to the genus Hartmannella or Vahlkampfia, were not identified. The isolation and identification of aquatic amoebae from low salinity sea water showed that specific diagnostic features of some marine amoebae are preserved in both estuarine and oceanic sea-water habitats. The cultivation of amoebae from Chesapeake Bay sea water provided essential background information for recognizing and identifying free-living amoebae which could contaminate cultures of tissue or body fluid from diseased marine shellfish, or occur as facultative parasites in marine hosts.