Caecitellus


Introduction

Caecitellus is a genus of small bacterivorous zooflagellates in marine environments, distinguished because the cells typically move by gliding along a substrate rather than by swimming. The genus was created in 1993 by D.J. Patterson and colleagues. The single species is C. parvulus (Griessmann, 1913), one of the more common small flagellates associated with marine sediments. Before 1993, this species was known as Bodo parvulus. However, it does not belong to the bodonid/kinetoplastid group of protists but instead is closely related to bicosoecid (also spelled "bicoecid") flagellates such as Cafeteria. In turn, Caecitellus and the bicosoecids belong to a large, presumably monophyletic assemblage that has been called "chromists", "heterokonts" or "stramenopiles" - from which Caecitellus differs by lacking the trademark tripartite tubular hairs from the anterior flagellum.


Return to summary information