MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Beautiful video!

I recently purchased a foot switch control to activate the shutter on my microscope camera, and it works so well I wanted to share this information with other users. I am sure many of you already use something like this, but for those who haven't yet incorporated it into you system here is an exampl...

I made a curious observation recently that I thought I would share with this forum and see if anyone else has seen this. I don't think this is the suctorian Sphaerophrya stentori that has been reported to be an epibiont (an organism that lives on the surface of another living organism) of various St...

Thanks, Don

Hi Javier, glad you liked the video. In this particular case, the rotifer was pinned down a bit by the coverglass but these rotifers generally are attached to some substrate. They are thus easier to photograph/take videos. The other structures that you noticed are the muscle fibers of this critter. ...

This is a large rotifer so it was necessary to provide a "fly over" view. It was pinned down by the coverglass, making it easier to film. The video starts at the anterior end where the corona and its cilia are found. These cilia sweep food into the mouth of the rotifer, where the ingested food is pr...

Javier, Don, Kurt and Jochen: Thanks for your kind comments. This really is a beautiful and interesting critter!

Tim

I made some collections today at my favorite pond and was delighted to see the beautiful rotifer Collotheca. This is an interesting rotifer because instead of having moving cilia around the corona, this rotifer has long setae, as seen in the photos below. These setae are used to move prey organisms ...

Wes,

Those are really beautiful images. I like the different optical sections and what each one reveals.

Tim

Hi Wes,

Thanks for your kind comments and the very useful info about embedding a YouTube video. I finally know how to do this!

Tim

Thanks, Javier! Sometimes heliozoans can merge into one cell in a process called plasmogamy. An example in Actinosphaerium is shown in the photo below. Actinosphaerium plasmogamy.jpg With Raphidiophrys, I have not seen reports of plasmogamy, and I have not been able to find any information about the...

Raphidiophrys is a centrohelid heliozoan that forms colonies of individuals connected together by plasmatic bridges, as seen in the photos below. You can also see the scales that cover the axopods and the body of the cell. The interesting thing that I noticed in watching these organisms is that ther...

Hi zzffnn, Thanks for the comments. Here are the pages from the Illustrated Guide that you requested. IMG-2366.jpg IMG-2367.jpg The book is organized as keys to help identify protozoa to representative genera There is also a lot of introductory material to orient the reader. Most of the books that I...

Thank you, Don

I came across the remnants of a pellicle of the flagellate Lepocinclis spirogyroides (aka Euglena spirogyra). This photo shows the knobby appearance of the pellicle in this flagellate. A lot easier to photograph than the live, normally writhing and moving organism! IMG_0003_1-1.JPG Canon 1300D with ...

Really nice video! I wonder what it took for that Vorticella to be able to land on this rotifer, attach and grow, although they do the same thing to water fleas pretty regularly.

I recently observed an amoeba I had not seen before. This amoeba is called Cochliopodium. I noticed that this amoeba has a dimpled appearance on its pellicle. The dorsal surface of the amoeba has a flexible layer called the tectum, which is composed of scales that are made of complex carbohydrates (...

Hi Crusty and Wes, thanks for the kind comments. Crusty, as Wes noted, a 16x Neofluar objective was used and everything was the same as the photo except no flash.

I recently observed a number of the ciliated protist Dileptus actively feeding in a sample I had collected. I observed one of them ingesting a rotifer, basically stuffing it into its mouth! Unfortunately, I was not able to film this, but I did film one actively feeding. The photo below is a included...

Hi Don, this ciliate is 1-2 mm so you can see it with the naked eye

Javier and DrPhoxinus: Thanks for your kind comments DrPhoxinus: The sample in which I found this guy was from my favorite collecting spot; a small pond near a larger lake. I have found all kinds of interesting protists (including the giant amoeba Chaos) and algae. I always get excited to make colle...

Thanks, Javier! It was very impressive to see how this worm was able to grab a clump of food and shove it in its mouth

This video shows the giant ciliate Bursaria. This guy is so big I had to use a 6.3x Neofluar objective and darkfield (using the Ph3 phase annulus) to fit it into a the field of the camera. You can see the huge buccal cavity of this ciliate, which was large enough to allow this Bursaria to ingest a m...

This is a video of a small annelid actively feeding in a sample I collected. I don't know what the name of this worm is, but I am guessing it is some kind of oligochaete (if you have ideas on what this is, I would appreciate your comments). It was fascinating to watch the worm extend some kind of or...

Interesting photo. I am curious how you did the stack. Was the ostracod pinned down by the coverglass? Did you take a short video and parse out the individual shots to make the stack?

Tim

Alexander, Javier, Hobbyst46 and Jochen: thanks for your nice comments!

I thought I would share some photos of several different and interesting cyanobacteria that I have observed over the past months. Many of these have population explosions (blooms) in the spring and summer in ponds leading to very large numbers of these cyanobacteria and production of toxins. Several...

That is one excellent video and documentation!

Hi Jochen,

Excellent photos of an interesting alga! Does this alga have a flagellum to get around or are the bristles for floating and that is the mode of movement?

Tim

Thanks, Jochen!