The vampyrellid amoeba gen. et sp. nov. and its remarkable strategy to acquire algal cell contents.

The vampire amoebae (Vampyrellida, Rhizaria) inhabit freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems and consume a wide range of eukaryotic prey. This includes diverse microalgae, fungi, and microscopic animals. One of the most captivating aspects of the vampyrellids is their ability to extract the cell contents of other eukaryotes after local dissolution of the prey cell wall, a feeding strategy that occurs in several vampyrellid families, but is best studied in species that attack zygnematophyte green algae.

Effects of larval crowding on the transcriptome of .

Larval crowding is one common ecological stressor for many insect species. In , high larval density alters multiple widely-studied phenotypes including life-history traits, morphology and behavior. Nevertheless, we still miss a holistic view of the full range of phenotypic changes and the underlying molecular mechanisms.