Vampyrellid amoebae are predatory protists, which consume a variety of eukaryotic prey and inhabit freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Although they have been known for almost 150 years, much of their diversity lacks an in-depth characterization. To date, environmental sequencing data hint at several uncharacterized lineages, to which no phenotype is associated. Furthermore, there are numerous historically described species without any molecular information. This study reports on two new vampyrellid strains from moorlands, which extract the protoplasts of Closterium species (Zygnematophyceae). Our data on morphology, prey range specificity and feeding strategy reveal that the studied vampyrellids are very similar to the historically described Vampyrella closterii. However, phylogenetic analyses demonstrate that the two strains do not belong to the genus Vampyrella and, instead, form a distinct clade in the family Leptophryidae. Hence, we introduce a new genus of algivorous protoplast extractors, Pseudovampyrella gen. nov., with the species P. closterii (= V. closterii) and P. minor. Our findings indicate that the genetic diversity of morphologically described vampyrellid species might be hugely underrated.

中文翻译：

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假空盘菌属 十一月：类似吸血鬼的原生质体提取器属在细藻科中找到了自己的位置

吸血变形虫是掠食性原生生物，它们捕食各种真核猎物，栖息在淡水、海洋和陆地生态系统中。尽管它们已为人所知近 150 年，但它们的大部分多样性仍缺乏深入的表征。迄今为止，环境测序数据暗示了几个未表征的谱系，与表型无关。此外，有许多历史上描述的物种没有任何分子信息。这项研究报告了来自沼泽地的两种新吸血动物菌株，它们提取了新月藻属（Zygnematophyceae）的原生质体。我们关于形态、猎物范围特异性和进食策略的数据表明，所研究的吸血动物与历史上描述的新月吸血动物非常相似。然而，系统发育分析表明，这两种菌株不属于吸血鬼属，而是形成纤毛科中的一个独特的分支。因此，我们引入了一个新的食藻原生质体提取器属，Pseudovampyrella gen。nov.，包括P. closterii (= V. closterii ) 和P. minor物种。我们的研究结果表明，形态学描述的吸血动物物种的遗传多样性可能被大大低估了。