any small biflagellate organism considered to be either a protozoan (order Cryptomonadida) or an alga (class Cryptophyceae). Occurring in both fresh and salt water, cryptomonads contain pigments found elsewhere only in red and blue-green algae. Some live harmlessly as zooxanthellae within other organisms. Cryptomonas, a typical photosynthetic genus, has two unequal flagella attached at one end of a flattened oval cell. Chilomonas does not have chromatophores (pigment-containing structures) and lives by ingesting organic matter. Some cryptomonads encyst in a spherical cellulose case. They reproduce asexually in either the motile or nonmotile state. See also zooxanthella.