Genus Cochliopodium Hertwig & Lesser, 1874

Diagnosis: amoeba discoid or spherical in shape with a central granular hump, partly or completely surrounded by a more or less distinctive hyaline margin; amoeba covered with a tectum, a single flexible layer of complex carbohydrate scales, which covers the dorsal surface of the cell, while the ventral one remains free. These microscales, also called tectal scales, can be seen with a light microscope as a dense layer of punctations; small subpseudopodia appear sometimes along the hyaline zone and trailing filaments at the posterior end; central cytoplasma hump usually contains some relatively large crystals; some species form cysts. About twenty species have been described. Species are reported from freshwater, marine and brackish habitats.
Below some microscales, all after Kudryavtsev (2006):

Remarks: Species can only be distinguished with certainty with an electron microscope, as the shape of the microscales is an important key characteristic.

 
References:

Kudryavtsev 1999, 1999a, 2000, 2004, 2004a, 2005, 2005a, 2006, 2006a, Page 1988, 1991.