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Biomyxa (buy-o-mix-a) is a genus of poorly known amoebae. Some think that all organisms with branching pseudopodia should be assigned to the unshelled (athalamid) granuloreticulosea. However, it is quite clear that many different kinds of organisms have adopted fine branching pseudopodia - such as Massisteria known to be a cercomonad, vampyrellids such as Arachnula, nucleariid filose amoebae and so on. In Biomyxa the pseudopodia are stiffened internally, they branch but rarely join back together. the pseudopodial system is very dynamic, with stiff elements being formed quickly and breaking down quickly - with the cells almost crawling across the substrate. Phase contrast.
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Amoeba with fine stiff pseudopodia. Phase contrast microscopy.
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Description: This amoeboid protist shows a very variable morphology, sometimes more extended and reticulate, at other times slim and stretched. Image shows a specimen of app. 300x300 µm including the pseudopodia. Pseudopodia branched, anastomosing and conspicuously stiff, with diameters decreasing continuously from the center to the periphery. There is no distinction between hyalo- and granuloplasm. In parts of pseudopodia close to the central mass a simultaneous bi-directional streaming, centripetal and âfugal, of the granules within the pseudopodia is visible. Numerous vacuoles in the central mass, some also located in the pseudopodia.
