Ameba (am-e'bah)

Syn.: proteus animalcule. A genus of the subcla Amebida and the order Gym name bid a, including naked ameboid forms with lobose pseudopodia This order includes the genera Ameba and Entameba. The amebae po e a nucleus and contain contractile vacuoles, acting as an excretory system, and storage vacuoles for the digestion of food. They thrust out pseudopodia and have an outer clear protoplasm or ectosarc and an inner granular endosarc. They reproduce themselves by simple or binary fi ion and live by ingesting minute portions of organisms which they digest and a imilate. They often undergo encystation, existing thus under adverse conditions. A. buccal is. See Entameba. A. col i. See Entameba. A. in stool, see in appendix, page 906. A. proteus. A saprophytic form found widely scattered in nature. [Gr., amoibe, alternation.]