The chief advantage of encystment of an Amoeba is (a) the ability to survive during adverse physical conditions (b) the ability to live for some time without ingesting food (c) protection from parasites and predators (d) the chance to get rid of accumulated waste products.
Option A Amoeba forms a cyst and reproduces by multiple fission, during adverse environmental conditions. The animal secretes a threelayered, protective, chitinous cyst around it and becomes inactive. Inside the cyst, the nucleus repeatedly divides to form several daughter nuclei, which arrange themselves near the periphery. Each daughter nucleus becomes enveloped by a small amount of cytoplasm, thus forming a daughter amoeba, called amoebula or pseudopodiospore. When favourable conditions arrive, the cyst breaks off liberating the young pseudopodiospores, each with fine pseudopodia. They feed and grow rapidly to become adults and lead an independent life.
