1 Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. Electronic address: holly.moeller@lifesci.ucsb.edu.
2 Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02540, USA.
In this Quick guide, Holly Moeller and Matthew Johnson introduce Mesodinium, a genus of algae with a propensity for 'stealing' photosynthetic machinery from its prey.