Superfamily Arcellinina (informally known as thecamoebians or testate lobose amoebae) are a group of shelled benthic protists common in most Quaternary lacustrine sediments. They are found worldwide, from the equator to the poles, living in a variety of fresh to brackish aquatic and terrestrial habitats. More than 130 arcellininid species and strains are ascribed to the genus Centropyxis Stein, 1857 within the family Centropyxidae Jung, 1942, which includes species that are distinguished by having a dorsoventral-oriented and flattened beret-like test (shell). Conicocassis, a new arcellininid genus of Centropyxidae differs from other genera of the family, specifically genus Centropyxis and its type species C. aculeata (Ehrenberg, 1932), by having a unique test comprised of two distinct components; a generally ovoid to subspherical, dorsoventral-oriented test body, with a pronounced asymmetrically positioned, funnellike flange extending from a small circular aperture. The type species of the new genus, Conicocassis pontigulasiformis (Beyens et al., 1986) has previously been reported from peatlands in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, as well as very wet mosses and aquatic environments in High Arctic regions of Europe and North America. The occurrence of the species in lacustrine environments in the central Northwest Territories extends the known geographic distribution of the genus in North America considerably southward.
