Euglenoids

Euglenids, sometimes called euglenoids, are a prominent group of free-living, aquatic flagellates with diverse modes of nutrition, including eating bacteria, eating larger microeukaryotes, absorbing organic molecules, and photosynthesis in the species known as euglenophytes. They are neither plant nor animal. About 1,400 species have been described, and at least twice that many may await discovery. Several photosynthetic and osmotrophic species form blooms in nutrient-rich conditions and are useful indicators of environmental pollution, while the phagotrophic species are ubiquitous primary consumers in microbial food webs across the globe.