Family Leptophryidae Hess, Sausen et Melkonian, 2012
Diagnosis: Limnetic or terrestrial Vampyrellida; predominantly exhibiting the expanded morphotype. Cells spreading on surfaces in the trophic phase, continuously changing their outline and therefore extremely variable in size and shape (e.g. irregular branched, elongate, anastomosing, network-forming). Pseudopodia thin, tapering, occasionally ensiform; sometimes branching or dendritic; often emerging from hyaloplasmatic fringes at the cell margins; sometimes in tufts. Cells move by incessant creeping. Food items are engulfed as a whole (e.g. unicellular or colonial algae, fragments of algal filaments, fungal spores, yeast cells and small metazoans) or opened by local perforation of the cell wall (e.g. fungal conidia by Platyreta germanica). Color of granuloplasm varies with food source; colorless or pale, algivorous members occasionally show yellowish, brownish or orange tint. Size and shape of digestive cysts depend on the food source; cysts sometimes resembling the outline of the prey. Outer, delicate cyst envelope known for Vampyrellidae emend. not observed.
Type genus. Leptophrys
Other genera included: Theratromyxa, Platyreta
