Clathrella foreli, with nucleus visible, Crailoo, Netherlands, 2024
Clathrella foreli Penard, 1903
Diagnosis: Cell spherical, surrounded by a number of hyaline, colorless, bowl-shaped scales, loosely attached to each other. Filopodia extend through gaps between the scales. Pseudopodia branching and when attached to the substrate also anastomosing. One vesicular nucleus.
Dimensions: Penard: mean 40-55 µm for adult amoebae. Hoogenraad & De Groot (1940): 40-50 µm. My measurements 25-86 µm, mean 35 µm (only the body without scales!). Scales about 9.8-16 µm in diameter, nucleus 8.2-16 µm.
Habitat: Oligotrophic and mesotrophic fresh water. Europe, North- and South-America, Japan, India.
Remarks: For more information, see my paper in Mikrokosmos (Siemensma, 2014)
Clathrella foreli, Crailoo, Netherlands, 2024
Clathrella foreli, Crailoo, Netherlands, 2024
Surface structure (Spiegelplas, Netherlands, 2023)
Two specimens from Crailoo, a mesotrophic freshwater pond
Clathrella foreli, n=nucleus, plasmabody 30 µm, scales about 14 µm – Peru, rainforest lagoon.
Clathrella foreli, 31 µm, nucleus clearly visible.
Specimen showing the polygonal structure of the scales and the branching and anastomosing filopodia.
The arrow points to a gap between the scales through which pseudopodia pass.
Specimen with many branching pseudopodia
Clathrella foreli, 30 µm – Peru, feeding on diatoms
Empty shell
Clathrella foreli, dried shell, from Naardermeer and Peru
Clathrella foreli, 32 µm, Naardermeer
Clathrella foreli, Naardermeer and Crailoo
Clathrella foreli, body 40 and 32 µm, Montana USA