Scanning Electron Microscopy of Dried and Acid Treated Shells of Difflugia

Abstract

Difflugia lobostoma is a shelled amoeba. The shell is an external structure of considerable mass which presents the animal with special restrictions in cell locomotion which are met by the development of active pseudopodial lobopodia containing, apparently, an organized system of thick and thin microfilaments (Eckert and McGee-Russell, 1972). The shell is constructed of sand grains picked up from the environment, and cemented into place with a secretion. There is a single opening through which lobopods extend. The organization of the shell was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).Intact shells or animals with shells were dried by the critical point method of Anderson (1966) or air dried, after primary fixation in glutaraldehyde.