Morphology
- Motile unicellular algae.
- Generally oval in shape.
- Cell wall is made up of glycoprotein and non cellulosic polysaccharides instead of cellulose.
- Two anteriorly inserted whiplash flagella. Flagella originates from a basal granule located in the anterior papillate or non-papillate region of the cytoplasm. Flagellum shows typical 9+2 arrangement of the component fibrils.
- Contractile vacuoles found at near the bases of flagella.
- Prominent cup or bowl shaped chloroplast is present. The chloroplast contains bands composed of a variable number of the photosynthetic thylakoids which are not organised into grana-like structures.
- Pyrenoid with starch sheath is present in the posterior end of the chloroplast.
- Eye spot present in the anterior portion of the chloroplast. It consists of two or three, more or less parallel rows of linearly arranged fat droplets.
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