WunderkanoneExploring the Microscopic World

Heliomorpha mutans

Heliomorpha mutans. Centroplast where the axoneme insert and the flagella originate.

Heliomorpha mutans (= Dimorpha mutans, Gruber 1881) is a small helioflagellate. Normally it looks like a ordinary heliozoan with two flagellas. When disturbed it can retract its axopodia and swim away. I found Heliomorpha mutans in the neuston layer of a sample collected from swamped grassland. I have seen a species catch and engulf three coccal Green Algae within five minutes.

Heliomorpha mutans (under the name Dimorpha mutans) was for a long time considered as part of the Heliozoans. Ultra-structural studies showed that the microtubule pattern of the axonemes is different from the other orders that are included in the Heliozoans. As recent phylogenetic studies have shown that Dimorpha is part of the Cercozoa – together with other amoeboids or flaggelates that use filose pseudopods to catch prey – Dimorpha has been renamed Heliomorpha (Cavalier-Smith & Bass, 2009).

Although Heliomorpha mutans doesn't appear very photogenic, it is a very interesting creature and difficult to photograph.