Exploring a pond water sample with a DC micronaut- part-2

Sep 09, 2016 • 10:29 AM UTC

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Microorganisms

laksiyer

Human observer of life. https://sukshmadarshin.wordpress.com

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Sometime back I had posted a series of videos on a Vahlkampfid amoeba . This emerged from a long session I had with DC-Micronaut Reethi while we were exploring various foldscope tricks and also deciding on workshop content. In that session we saw several other gems and I didnt get myself to post them until now. So here they are. I kept the audio on for we had great discussions.
Video 1. Gastrotrich the hairy-backs. A common pond water animal who is a bit shy of light. Gastrotrichs are related to rotifers and have a characteristic shape. Those two projections at the back contain cement glands, one of which puts an adhesive and another that removes it. How fascinating.

Video 2. Halteria . A ciliate that shows saltatory/jerky motion.

Video 3. A mystery flagellate (Flagellate-18568-3-LI). Quite flat and showing a characteristic spiral motion. Any help in identification will be appreciated.

Video 4. A large slow moving ciliate (Ciliate-18568-4-LI). I thought this was a Blepharisma, but am not sure as Blepharisma has a red pigment.

Video 5. My favorite field though is this one with a Ciliate (Ciliate-18568-5-LI) amidst flagellates, chlorophytes and bacteria. I think this is when we got better at dark field and angular illumination.

Video 6. This is a flagellate (Flagellate-18568-6-LI) that has an interesting cork-screw motion. It has a depression at its anterior end. It also jiggles.

The session ended with staring at these amoeba-like organisms all over the field, but they weren’t moving… a little more patience and when all was quiet, the amoebae came out and how they did (click here to read). An excerpt below.