Amoebozoa is a major taxonomic group containing about 2,400 described species of amoeboid protists, often possessing blunt, fingerlike, lobose pseudopods and tubular mitochondrial cristae. In traditional classification schemes, Amoebozoa is usually ranked as a phylum within either the kingdom Protista or the kingdom Protozoa. In the classification favored by the International Society of Protistologists, it is retained as an unranked "supergroup" within Eukaryota. Molecular genetic analysis supports Amoebozoa as a monophyletic clade. Modern studies of eukaryotic phylogenetic trees identify it as the sister group to Opisthokonta, another major clade which contains both fungi and animals as well as several other clades comprising some 300 species of unicellular eukaryotes. Amoebozoa and Opisthokonta are sometimes grouped together in a high-level taxon, variously named Unikonta, Amorphea or Opimoda.
Lobosa is a taxonomic group of amoebae in the phylum Amoebozoa. Most lobosans possess broad, bluntly rounded pseudopods, although one genus in the group, the recently discovered Sapocribrum, has slender and threadlike (filose) pseudopodia. In current classification schemes, Lobosa is a subphylum, composed mainly of amoebae that have lobose pseudopods but lack cilia or flagella.
Difflugia is the largest genus of Arcellinida, one of several groups of Tubulinea within the eukaryote supergroup Amoebozoa. Arcellinida species produce shells or tests from mineral particles or biogeonic elements and are thus commonly referred to as testate amoebae or shelled amoebae. Difflugia are particularly common in marshes and other freshwater habitats.
The Tubulinea are a major grouping of Amoebozoa, including most of the more familiar amoebae genera like Amoeba, Arcella, Difflugia and Hartmannella.
Arcellinid testate amoebae or Arcellinida, Arcellacean or lobose testate amoebae are single-celled protists partially enclosed in a simple test (shell).
Testate amoebae are a polyphyletic group of unicellular amoeboid protists, which differ from naked amoebae in the presence of a test that partially encloses the cell, with an aperture from which the pseudopodia emerge, that provides the amoeba with shelter from predators and environmental conditions.
Apodera is a genus of amoeboid protists belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae, a group of shelled amoebae. Their shells, or tests, are lageniform with a clear constriction that separates the neck from the body.
Cryptodifflugia is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae. It contains all the species previously grouped as the genus Difflugiella, which is now a synonym of Cryptodifflugia.
The vampyrellids, colloquially known as vampire amoebae, are a group of free-living predatory amoebae classified as part of the lineage Endomyxa. They are distinguished from other groups of amoebae by their irregular cell shape with propensity to fuse and split like plasmodial organisms, and their life cycle with a digestive cyst stage that digests the gathered food. They appear worldwide in marine, brackish, freshwater and soil habitats. They are important predators of an enormous variety of microscopic organisms, from algae to fungi and animals. They are also known as aconchulinid amoebae.
Hyalospheniidae is a family of arcellinid testate amoebae and the sole family of the infraorder Hyalospheniformes. Commonly referred to as "hyalospheniids", these lobose amoebae are characterized by their ability to generate a shell composed of either organic matter or siliceous particles that may be recycled from euglyphid amoebae. They inhabit soil or freshwater habitats, and are abundant on Sphagnum mosses.
Nebela is a diverse genus of testate amoebae of cosmopolitan distribution, belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. They are "prey agglutinated" or "kleptosquamic" organisms, meaning they take the inorganic plates from their prey to construct their test.
Porosia is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. Described in 1942, it used to be a monotypic genus with the sole species P. bigibbosa. However a second species, P. paracarinata, was discovered in 2015.
Cryptodifflugiidae is a family of arcellinid testate amoebae.
Meisterfeldia is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae erected in 2016 that unites several new species as well as old species previously found in the genus Cryptodifflugia. Five of the newly described species were first found and isolated from subarctic tundra soil surrounding a river near Chokurdakh, Russia, while the last one, described in 2021, was recovered from tree hollows in Moscow.
Cryptodifflugia leachi is an aquatic species of testate amoebae discovered in 2006 in Canada, living in bottom sediment from wetlands at the base of the Niagara Escarpment.
Luapeleamoeba hula is a species of acanthamoebid amoeba described in 2016, capable of producing protosteloid fruiting bodies that consist of a stalk with one spore. It was obtained from dead māmaki leaves from the Manuka Natural Area Reserve in Hawai'i. It has also been found in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Planocarina is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. It was created in 2016 to agglutinate a clade of species that were previously assigned to the paraphyletic genus Nebela. All species of Planocarina have a compressed keel surrounding the posterior part of their shell. It is the sister group of Alabasta.
Alabasta is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. It contains species with an elongated test and a strongly curved "pseudostome" with a flare and a notch in narrow view. These species previously belonged to the genus Nebela, but were later found to be a distinct monophyletic group different from Nebela. It is the sister group to Planocarina.
Erugomicula is a genus of testate lobose amoebae found in the order Arcellinida. It was described in 2021 and tentatively placed in the family Hyalospheniidae, but it is also attributable to the family Difflugiidae, based solely on morphological characteristics. At present it is placed as incertae sedis within the larger Arcellinida group.
Corycidia is a clade of amoeboid protists within the eukaryotic supergroup Amoebozoa. It contains all amoebae of the families Microcoryciidae, which was previously regarded as Arcellinida, and Trichosphaeriidae, which contains the sole genus Trichosphaerium.
