''Cafeteria'' is a genus of marine

bicosoecid Bicosoecida (ICZN) or Bicosoecales/Bicoecea (ICBN) is an order of Bikosea, a small group of unicellular flagellates, included among the heterokonts. Informally known as bicosoecids, they are a small group of unicellular flagellates. The cells ar ...

described in 1988 by Tom Fenchel and D. J. Patterson. It was created after the discovery of a new species, ''

Cafeteria roenbergensis ''Cafeteria roenbergensis'' is a small bacterivorous marine flagellate. It was discovered by Danish marine ecologist Tom Fenchel and named by him and taxonomist David J. Patterson in 1988. It is in one of three genera of bicosoecids, and the ...

'', a tiny (5–10 μm)

eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the ...

organism that is eaten by protozoa and small

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s. The name is meant to indicate the importance of the genus in the

food web A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one o ...

. At least three species are recognised: * ?'' Cafeteria marsupialis'' Larsen & Patterson, 1990 * '' Cafeteria ligulifera'' Larsen & Patterson 1990 * '' Cafeteria minimus'' (Griessmann 1913) Larsen & Patterson 1990 * '' Cafeteria mylnikovii'' Cavalier-Smith & Chao 2006 * ''

'' Fenchel & Patterson, 1988 * '' Cafeteria sippewissettensis'' (Teal et al. 1998) Cavalier-Smith 2013

References

Encyclopedia of Life
Heterokont genera Bikosea {{Heterokont-stub