Cochliopodium minus Page, 1976, emend. Kudryavtsev, 2006

Diagnosis. Length in locomotion 15—42 µm, breadth 16—72 µm, length : breadth ratio 0.4—1.5. Fan-shaped or triangular in locomotion; wide anterior hyaloplasm with a ragged edge, sometimes producing short subpseudopodia; short trailing filaments. Spherical vesicular nucleus, 5—10 µm in diameter (average about 7 µm), with central nucleolus, 2—5 µm in diameter (average 4 µm). Scales consist of a circular grid-like base plate, a short central column of numerous densely packed stalks (eight peripheral stalks directly support the apical part) and a funnel-shaped apical part consisting of 17—19 spokes, fine concentric rings and a cross-striated outer rim. Stalks of the central column may fuse to form a monolithic structure in some strains. Observed diameter of the base plate ca. 0.64—0.77 µm, of the apical part, 0.58—0.69 µm, height of the scale 0.17—0.25 µm.

Habitat: Freshwater. Grassland soil.

Geographical distribution: USA, England, Scotland.

Remarks: Differs from the species with the structurally similar scales, C. barki, C. minutoidum and C. actinophorum (Kudryavtsev, unpublished) in the proportions of a scale and the structure of the central column; at the LM level, in the ragged anterior edge and the absence of the posterior hyaloplasm during locomotion.