Habitat and Ecology
''Raphidiophrys'' can be found in freshwater habitats. Species can be found solitarily and/or colonially;Dürrschmidt, M., & Nicholls, K. H. (1985). Scale structure and taxonomy of some species of ''Raphidocystis'', ''Raphidiophrys'', and ''Pompholyxophrys'' (Heliozoea) including descriptions of six new taxa. ''Canadian Journal of Zoology, 63''(8), 1944-1961. doi:10.1139/z85-288 in that stage interconnected with cytoplasmic bridges.KINOSHITA, E., SUZAKI, T., SHIGENAKA, Y., & SUGIYAMA, M. (1995). Ultrastructure and rapid axopodial contraction of a heliozoa, ''Raphidiophrys contractilis'' sp. nov. ''The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 42''(3), 283-288. doi:10.1111/j.1550-7408.1995.tb01581.x Species are able to coordinate while in a colony to hunt prey such as ''Paramecium''. Like most heliozoans, ''Raphidiophrys'' species can capture prey using their axopodia. In ''Raphidiophrys contractilis'' it has been observed that upon capturing prey, its axopodia will contract toward the cell body, however, the presence of Ca2+ is required.S. M. Mostafa Kamal Khan, Arikawa, M., Omura, G., Suetomo, Y., Kakuta, S., & Suzaki, T. (2003). Axopodial contraction in the heliozoon ''Raphidiophrys contractilis'' requires extracellular Ca2. ''Zoological Science, 20''(11), 1367-1372. doi:10.2108/zsj.20.1367Description of Organism
''Raphidiophrys'' can be distinguished from other heliozoans as being spineless, however this is not true for ''Raphidiophrys heterophryoidea''. Members of this genus are covered in tangential siliceous scales of one or many types including long, narrow scale with sharp points, narrow ellipsoidal and broad oval scales. Bipartite scales with, sometimes-branched, septa are characteristic of ''Raphidiophrys''. Fine structure in scales and size can be used to differentiate amongst species in the genus. Axopodia are numerous and connect to a centroplast found in a spherical body shape. Microtubules extend from the centroplast to form axonemes of the axopodia and are linked together by cross bridges. These axopodia have been observed to contract in ''Raphidiophrys contractilis''. Axopodia may also contain granule kinetocysts that can be used in food uptake and are present in the plasma membrane.Sakaguchi, M., Suzaki, T., Mostafa Kamal Khan, S. M., & Hausmann, K. (2002). Food capture by kinetocysts in the heliozoon ''Raphidiophrys contractilis''. ''European Journal of Protistology, 37''(4), 453-458. doi:10.1078/0932-4739-00847 The nucleus can be found in the periphery of the cell. Organic spicules have been found on ''Raphidiophrys heterophryoidea''. ''Raphidiophrys heterophryoidea'' is the first organism to show a combination of scales and spicules in one species amongst heliozoans demonstrating a transitional state observed at least twice in centrohelid evolution. This is important because of suspicions that like other hacrobians, centrohelids may have haploid and diploid stages that are morphologically different (in centrohelids the ploidy of these morphologically different stages has never been shown).List of Species
''Raphidiophrys capitata'' Siemensma & Roijacker 1988 ''Raphidiophrys drakena'' Zlatogursky 2016 ''Raphidiophrys elegans'' Hertwig & Lesser 1874 emend. Penard 1904 ''Raphidiophrys intermedia'' Penard 1904 ''Raphidiophrys heterophryoidea'' Zlatogursky 2012 ''Raphidiophrys minuta'' Nicholls & Dürrschmidt 1985 ''Raphidiophrys ovalis'' Siemensma & Roijacker 1988 ''Raphidiophrys viridis'' Archer 1867 ''Raphidiophrys contractilis'' Kinoshita, Suzaki, Shigenaka & Sugiyama 1995References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2912102 Hacrobia genera