Description of Hartmannella

Locomotive form monopodial with a prominent anterior hyaline zone. Locomotion steady, non-eruptive. Cytoplasm without prominent cytoplasmic crystals but frequently with many small crystals. Often with a contractile vacuole. Mitochondria, of those species examined, sometimes elongate. Forms round, or slightly oval, smooth bilaminar cysts. Glycocalyx thin, some with cup-like surface structures, around 12.5 nm in diameter. Habitat: Widely distributed in freshwater, also marine species. Distinguish from other limax amoebae of the class Heterolobosea, and families Leptomyxidae and Amoebidae by comparing features of the groupings. Many inadequately described species in this genus including type species, H. hyalina (Dangeard, 1900).