First records of protosteloid amoebae isolated from coastal litter in the Philippines

The distribution and ecology of protosteloid amoebae are still relatively unexplored, especially in the paleotropics, despite their role in understanding the evolutionary lineage of Eumycetozoans, more commonly known as slime molds. Hence, an occurrence survey was carried out for the first time in the coastal vegetation of San Fernando City, La Union, Philippines to generate a species listing of protosteloid amoebae. Herein, a total of 40 substrate samples, comprising 20 aerial litter (AL) and 20 ground litter (GL), were collected from four collection points along the coastline of the study site to prepare for their inoculation in weak malt yeast agar (wMYA) plates. The culture plates recovered 12 species belonging to nine genera, all of which are reported as new records of protosteloid amoebae for the Philippines. This is the first study to be ever conducted on the occurrence of protosteloid amoebae in Southeast Asia.