Chaos carolinense. Carolina Biological Supply Inverted Nikon Diaphot, phase contrast 40x Locomotive forms and nuclei. Chaos carolinense. Carolina Biological Supply Inverted Nikon Diaphot, phase contrast Locomotive forms under magnification 4x, monotactic forms 40x. Chaos carolinense. Culture collecton of the Laboratory of the Cytology of Unicellular Organismsm, Institute of Cytology, RAS Cell coat and nucleus. TEM. Photo, TEM: A.Smirnov

Chaos carolinensee (Wilson, 1900) King & Jahn, 1948 Carolina Biological Supply WW-13-1324 Lentgh in locomotion 700-2000 mkm (when monotactic up to 5000 mkm). Majority of amoebae polytactic in locomotion, few are monotactic with distinct lateral wrinkles. Crystals are small bipyramids. Floating form irregularly radial, with uneven radiating pseudopodia. Up to 1000 discoid, flattened (sometimes biconvex) nuclei of granular type, 22-31 mkm in diameter (average 27 mkm). Surface coat consists of wavy filaments, radiating from amorphous basal layer. Overall thickness of the cell coat about 300 nm (Page, 1986). Honeycomb-like nuclear lamina (Gromov, 1986). This species is the biggest known amoeba and is relatively easy to identify, however one must always reserve the possibility to meet a new species of this size. TEM of the cell coat is obligate for identification, keep in mind that filaments amoebae may coagulate under the EM fixation. The culture is available from the from the Carolina Biological Supply The strain WW-13-1324 illustrated here in LM is an original field isolated, identified by the company's technicians. The company announce that it does not ship strains oversea, but in reality it is possible by agreement (contact the company). Another strain of this species exists in the Culture collecton of the Laboratory of the Cytology of Unicellular Organismsm, Institute of Cytology, RAS (Russia). This strain was a gift from F.C. Page in 1986. Freshwater, North America (Carolina). Cultivation: MP + Colpidium colpoda. May be maintained for some time in PJ + wheat (rise) grain, in presence of small ciliates and flagellates. Basic references for identification Gromov D.B. 1986. Ultrastructure of the nuclei of multinucleate amoeba Chaos carolinense (Wilson). Tsitologia (Moskow) 28: 446-447. Page F.C. 1986. The genera and possible relationships of the family Amoebidae, with special attention to comparative ultrastructure. Protistologica. 22: 301-316. Page F.C. 1988. A new key to freshwater and soil gymnamoebae. FBA, Ambleside. 122p. Page F.C. 1991. Nackte Rhizopoda. in: Protozoenfauna, b.2. Gustav Fisher, Stuttgart. 3-172. Note that the keys by Page from 1988 and 1991 harbour different sets of illustrations for this species. Back to checklist of species