Frontonia is a genus of free-living unicellular
ciliate protists, belonging to the order
Peniculida. As peniculids, the
Frontonia are closely related to members of the genus
Paramecium. However, whereas
Paramecia are mainly
bacterivores,
Frontonia are capable of ingesting large prey such as diatoms, filamentous algae, testate amoebas, and even, in some circumstances, members of their own species.
Photograph credit: Wiedehopf20