Description of Flamella daurica n. sp., with notes on the phylogeny of the genus Flamella and related taxa

A new species of naked amoebae, Flamella daurica (Amoebozoa, Conosa, Variosea), from the Russian Far East is studied and described. In addition, we isolated a strain, identified as Flamella aegyptia from Lake Ontario in Canada. Its SSU rRNA gene sequence is almost identical with that of the type strain, except for the presence of an intron in the SSU sequence. The phylogenetic analysis of a variosean alignment after inclusion of a number of environmental sequences found in GenBank confirmed that the species Talaepolella tubasferens Lahr 2012 is closely related to the Flamella clade but probably represents an independent genus and includes no less than two different species. This conclusion is supported by considerable differences between Talaepolella and Flamella in morphology and life history. Talaepolella tubasferens is an evolutionary important species demonstrating the transition from compact flamellian to expanded acramoebian morphology. The genus Flamella now includes twelve named species, which makes it one of the most species-rich genera of naked lobose amoebae.