Zooflagellates contain whip-like flagella. They are either free living or parasitic. Termites cannot live without a certain zooflagellete in their intestine producing cellulose digesting enzymes. Trypanosomes, which live in the blood of vertebrates, cause sleeping sickness. Sleeping sickness is occurs when a person is bitten by the tsetse fly.
All sporozoans are parasitic.
In typical parasite fashion, most have complicated life cycles, often with two different hosts. Human malaria is caused by four species of Plasmodium. The cell covering is a hard pellicle. A unique feature of all ciliates is the presence of two nuclei. The micronucleus is a small diploid nucleus used during the process of conjugation when genetic material between paramecia is swapped.