The genus consists of amoebae that exhibit pseudopodia and feed on a variety of organisms through phagocytosis, making them an important group in microbial ecology across most environments worldwide.

[2] Mayorella was named in the honor of Alfred G. Mayor, curator of natural sciences of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the founder and first director of the Tortugas Marine Laboratory where the author of the genus, Asa Arthur Schaeffer [de], was working at the time of the genus' description in 1926.

[2] Most species of Mayorella have been isolated from soil or freshwater environments, while a few have been reported from marine habitats, two of them from deep-sea areas.

[2] In 1926 the zoologist Asa Arthur Schaeffer [de] established the order Mayorella in the monotypic family Mayorellidae.

[3] The diversity of Mayorella-like amoebae is high, but the distinction between species of the genus is difficult and requires electron microscopy of the cell surface.