Bodonidae

Bodo () is a genus of microscopic kinetoplastids, flagellate excavates first described in 1831 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg. The genus contains four species. Bodo includes free-living, phagotrophic organisms that can be found in many marine and freshwater environments as well as some terrestrial environments. Being phagotrophic, Bodo feeds on bacteria and other microorganisms that it finds while swimming through its water-based habitats. The swimming-like movement is facilitated by the two unequal flagella that Bodo possesses which arise from an anteriorly located flagellar pocket. Bodo is roughly bean-shaped and is often missed in samples from water or terrestrial environments due to its small size. HistoryThe genus was originally described in 1831 by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg as having an ovoid body, a very short tail, transparent and able to show the colour of the food that it ingests. Ehrenberg also described the type species, Bodo saltans, as being green, but this was later refuted as it was discovered that the green colouration came from the photosynthetic bacteria that it ingests. In 1988, it was found that Bodo is a phagotroph that feed on bacteria of many kinds, so