Genus Leptomyxa Goodey, 1915, emend. Smirnov et al., 2016
Diagnosis: Amoebae of various shape, from limax-like to branched, expanded, reticulate plasmodia like organisms. Low-mobile or non-mobile cells can adopt expanded, comet-like shape. Various numbers of nuclei – from one to several thousands.
Ultrastructure: In the SSU rDNA sequence remarkable deletion of ca. 35 nucleotides starting from the position 252 and insertion of ca. 15 nucleotides starting from the position 730 (in the sequence AF293898 Leptomyxa cf. reticulata) against sequences of Flabellula spp. and Rhizamoeba spp.
Type species: L. reticulata Goodey, 1914.
Ecology: Free-living and widespread in soil, dry mosses and freshwater.
Remarks: This genus closely resembles the genus Rhizamoeba. The main difference is the absence of a limax form in Leptomyxa.