Q.Give an account of pseudopodia.

[!TLDR] Pseudopodia are temporary cytoplasmic extensions used for locomotion (creeping) and for feeding by phagocytosis. …

[!ANSWER] Pseudopodia are the characteristic locomotory (and feeding) structures of amoeboid protozoans.

A pseudopodium begins to form when cytoplasm within the cell is directed to flow toward one particular point on the cell surface, causing the flexible cell membrane at that point to bulge outward as a temporary projection. As this projection extends further, the remaining bulk of the cell body's cytoplasm progressively flows into it, effectively shifting the whole cell's position in the direction of the extending pseudopodium; by repeating this process — extending a new pseudopodium in the desired direction and flowing the cell body into it — an amoeboid protozoan achieves a slow, creeping form of locomotion across a solid surface.

Beyond locomotion, pseudopodia also serve an important feeding function: many amoeboid protozoans extend pseudopodia around a food particle from multiple directions until the projections meet and enclose the particle completely, engulfing it into the cell in a food vacuole through the process of phagocytosis. …

• Describing pseudopodia only as locomotory structures and omitting their equally important feeding (phagocytic) role. …