Heteronema trispira is a spirally twisted flagellated euglenoid from the genus Heteronema first described by Olexandra Matvienko in 1938.
Description Heteronema trispira has a spindle-shaped body up to 130 μm long, twisted into a spiral with three characteristic counterclockwise turns. It has a central nucleus, two long flagella and an apparently smooth periplast that tapers to a "snout-like" extension. The cell is filled with very small paramylon grains.
One specimen was described as containing phagocytosed algae.
Habitat and range H. trispira is rare, known only from a few isolated observations since 1938. Observations have been recorded from wetlands in Ukraine, Bulgaria and Germany. One cell was recorded from a freshwater lake in Florida.
References Matvienko, A.M. (1938). Materyiali do vivcheniya vodorostej URSR. I. [Contribution to the study of the algae of the UKR. SSR. I. Algae of the Sphagnum-Swamp "Klukvennoye"] (in Ukrainian). Uchen. Zap. Kharkyiv. derzh. Unyiv. 14: 29–78.