''Diplonema'' is a genus of free-living organisms in the

Euglenozoa Euglenozoa are a large group of flagellate Discoba. They include a variety of common free-living species, as well as a few important parasites, some of which infect humans. Euglenozoa are represented by three major clades, i.e., Kinetoplastea, Di ...

. They are distinguished from ''

Rhynchopus ''Rhynchopus'' is a genus of flagellate excavates in the class Diplonemea. They usually have flagella of different lengths and a single subapical opening with the flagellar pocket openings and adjacent feeding apparatus merging into one. When food ...

'' in Class

Diplonemea Diplonemidae is a family of biflagellated unicellular protists that may be among the more diverse and common groups of planktonic organisms in the ocean. Although this family is currently made up of three named genera; '' Diplonema'', ''Rhynchopus ...

by the absence of a fully

flagellate A flagellate is a cell or organism with one or more whip-like appendages called flagella. The word ''flagellate'' also describes a particular construction (or level of organization) characteristic of many prokaryotes and eukaryotes and their ...

dispersive stage.

Characteristics

''Diplonema'' feature two short flagella of equal length and two subapical openings. Most are free living, but there have been reported cases of infection in clams and sudden decomposition of aquarium plants. It was described initially in 1914 and later rediscovered in the 60s and called ''Isonema'', wrongly classified among

euglenid Euglenids (euglenoids, or euglenophytes, formally Euglenida/Euglenoida, ICZN, or Euglenophyceae, ICBN) are one of the best-known groups of flagellates, which are excavate eukaryotes of the phylum Euglenophyta and their cell structure is typical ...

s.Brands, S.J. (comp.) 1989-2007. The Taxonomicon. Universal Taxonomic Services, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Fecha de acceso: 7 de Febrero del 2016.

References

Euglenozoa genera {{Excavata-stub