Although testate amoebae have attracted interest of protistologists for more than 150 years, some groups especially those with a hyaline, organic test (= theca) are still poorly known. One of those is the genus Lecythium (Chlamydophryidae, Tectofilosida, Cercozoa, Rhizaria), first described by Hertwig and Lesser in 1874. Only old, sometimes obscure, species descriptions were available until only recently a new species of Lecythium was described and a small ribosomal subunit RNA gene (SSU) sequence was provided. To shed light on the phylogeny and taxonomy of Lecythium, we (a) cultured six isolates of five Lecythium species and provide morphological as well as ecological observations, (b) obtained six new SSU sequences and conducted phylogenetic analyses of the Tectofilosida, showing that Lecythium splits into terrestrial and freshwater clades, and (c) did an intensive literature research on testate amoebae with a theca and provide an illustrated identification key focusing on Lecythium. For the first time, the presence of cysts in the genus Lecythium is reported and we compared those to the cysts of the presumed closely related Chlamydophrys stercorea. Our results suggest that still many undescribed Lecythium species will be found in terrestrial and freshwater habitats.
Keywords: Chlamydophrys; Pamphagus; algivorous; fungivorous; protist; testate amoebae..
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