Description of Balamuthia
provided by BioPedia
Locomotive amoebae 12 to 60 µm in length, moving with leading lobose pseudopodium or by spider-like activity of the many radiating unbranched pseudopodia. Usually uninucleate with a vesicular nucleus about 5 µm diameter. Forms cysts. Mature cysts with tripartite wall consisting of an outer loose ectocyst, an inner endocyst and a middle mesocyst. Pathogenic amoeba that causes amoebic encephalitis in animals and with at least one report in humans. Type species B. mandrillaris Visvesvara, Schuster & Martinez, 1993 isolated from the brain of a mandrill baboon.
