Rhynchobodo thiophila (Skuja, 1956) Bernard et al., 2000. Cells of 17 to 24 microns long, slender and highly plastic, occasionally actively metabolic. Two thick flagella insert into an anteriorly directed pocket which opens about a fifth to a quarter of the way down the cell. The anterior flagellum is slightly shorter than the cell. The posterior flagellum is about one and half times the length of the cell. Anterior to the flagellar pocket, the cell forms abroad rostrum containing a tubular ingestion device. Hyaline inclusions and smaller granules may be observed in the basal part of the rostrum and around the flagellar pocket. A spiral groove runs from the flagellar pocket region to the posterior end of the cell. The groove takes approximately one turn around the cell and may be 3 microns or more in width. The anterior portion of the posterior flagellum usually lies within the groove during swimming. A row of refractile granules lies along each margin of the groove. The nucleus has a granular consistency and is slightly anterior to median. Most cells contained a number of large food vacuoles. Ultrastructural examination demonstrates the presence of a dispersed kinetoplast and the absence of extrusomes.
