Description of Scherffelia

Cells compressed and often twisted, in face view more or less elliptical, oval or heart-shaped. In lateral view narrower, rhombic, elliptic or wedge-shaped; four flagella emerge from an anterior pit as two opposed pairs; 2 lateral chloroplasts without pyrenoids; sngle eyespot, freshwater species contain two contractile vacuoles; flagella covered with small square scales overlain by rod-shaped ones and 2 opposed rows of hair-shaped scales; asexual reproduction by longitudinal fission into two or four cells within the parental wall; in fresh water and brackish water.