Description of Echinamoeba
provided by BioPedia
These small amoebae are usually triangular, fan-shaped or elongate in outline during locomotion. Locomotive cell small, around 12 µm, usually triangular, fan-shaped or elongate. With a few short spiny pseudopodia (echinopodia up to 1.5 µm long) extending from the hyaline region. Single nucleus. Cysts smooth and spherical. Thin cyst wall with a narrow space between the outer and inner layers, although one species has cysts without layers. Type species: E. exudans (Page, 1967). Like Acanthamoeba, they appear spiny, however, the fine subpseudopodia (echinopodia) that extend from the cell margin are smaller, about 1.5 um in length. The anterior leading edge of the advancing cell is irregular. The single nucleus, with a central nucleolus, is small. Care should be taken to distinguish this genus from other spiny amoebae with short subpseudopodia - they include the genera Filamoeba, Comandonia and Stachyamoeba.
