Search found 194 matches
- Wed Nov 15, 2023 6:25 pm
- Forum: Specimens, samples and slides
- Topic: Pond water aquarium for home
- Replies: 16
- Views: 6606
Re: Pond water aquarium for home
Plants aren't a good substitute for an aerator in a small habitat since they only produce oxygen during the day.
- Sun Jun 11, 2023 6:15 pm
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: pieris scales
- Replies: 10
- Views: 2171
Re: some scales
Wow. Did you do some special preparation, or are the wings really that transparent even with the scales?
- Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:38 am
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: New to me segmented worm
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1128
Re: New to me segmented worm
Nice catch. The rigid segments are because it is not truly a worm, it's an insect larva. This is one of the Ceratopogonidae, little flies variously called punkies, no-see-ums, or biting midges.
- Tue May 30, 2023 2:12 am
- Forum: Beginner's corner
- Topic: Try my AI Rotifer Classifier
- Replies: 13
- Views: 2587
Re: Try my AI Rotifer Classifier
Neat experiment. I tried it out with some from my page. It did a good job recognizing the wider and loricate ploimids as Mongononta, but missed more worm-like types like Taphrocampa , Notommata , and Cephalodella . It also mislabeled all the gnesiotroch rotifers as Bdelloidea, even Testudinella , I ...
- Thu May 18, 2023 7:44 pm
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: An intriguing freshwater specimen.
- Replies: 11
- Views: 2289
Re: An intriguing freshwater specimen.
Although bdelloids are the most familiar, rotifers come in a wonderful variety of shapes. This one is Platyias. I imagine the spines on the front and back are to make it just that much harder for something to swallow.
- Mon Apr 24, 2023 10:20 am
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Stalked ciliate on mayfly nymph
- Replies: 18
- Views: 3863
Re: Stalked ciliate on mayfly nymph
Sorry to add to the derail, but as far as eukaryotes developing from within archaea, I would say the matter does not seem as settled as that. See for instance Devos, 2021 for an alternate look at Asgardarchaeota and what we can learn from them.
- Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:32 pm
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: A giant rotifer in Amsterdam
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1202
Re: A giant rotifer in Amsterdam
Sexual dimorphism is standard for monogonont rotifers like this one, where most individuals are female and can reproduce parthenogenetically, and males are small and only occur on occasion. In bdelloid rotifers there actually aren't any males at all. Usually all-female animals are isolated species a...
- Mon Mar 20, 2023 2:15 am
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: A giant rotifer in Amsterdam
- Replies: 8
- Views: 1202
Re: A giant rotifer in Amsterdam
This is lovely work. The rotifer is Asplanchna, a large predatory type with jaws that extend to grab prey. They are also viviparous, hence the eggs developing inside.
- Sun Mar 12, 2023 5:41 am
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Is this a type/baby rotifer?
- Replies: 2
- Views: 786
Re: Is this a type/baby rotifer?
This is the rotifer Testudinella, with a chydorid water flea for good measure.
- Wed Mar 09, 2022 7:45 am
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Help with Identity
- Replies: 3
- Views: 1329
Re: Help with Identity
It's a nauplius larva, and in particular a baby copepod. So it will grow up to be one of the fiercest predators for its size.
- Tue Feb 22, 2022 12:15 am
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: Diatom and a crustacean video
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1028
Re: Diatom and a crustacean video
A nice little video. The creature on the diatom is not a crustacean or an animal. It's a single-celled ciliate, one where the cilia are fused into cirri which act like legs for crawling. There are lots of types like that, but this one is a Euplotes.
- Tue Dec 21, 2021 8:50 pm
- Forum: Specimens, samples and slides
- Topic: Where To Find Cyanobacteria
- Replies: 13
- Views: 4227
Re: Where To Find Cyanobacteria
Like others have said, it's not difficult to grow some cyanobacteria. If it ever helps, though, you can also find places where they've grown into visible mats and films. I have had luck finding them at the edges of marshes and lakes, where they are generally darker than green algae, and whenever I h...
- Sat Dec 11, 2021 2:30 am
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Identification help - found - Mytilina (Rotifera)
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1266
Re: Identification help
It is indeed a rotifer. In particular this one is a Mytilina...the toes on a short foot, posterior spines, and especially the dorsal furrow shown well in the third clip are all characteristic.
- Thu Dec 09, 2021 8:35 am
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: Squatinella Rotifer
- Replies: 5
- Views: 1958
Re: Squatinella Rotifer
I always wonder where in the world that name comes from? The name Squatinella ? It's a diminutive from Squatina , the angel sharks, which have a vaguely similar shape if you ignore the paired fins. If you are interested and will forgive some self-promotion I have tried to collect some etymologies o...
- Fri Oct 29, 2021 10:33 pm
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Leviathan ID (segmented aquatic worm)
- Replies: 9
- Views: 3211
Re: Leviathan ID (segmented aquatic worm)
So this is as said a string of zoids, which will ultimately separate. It is not actually a segmented worm but a flatworm, where there are several types that typically occur in chains of two or more. In particular this looks like Catenula , since the front of each zoid is marked off by a ciliated col...
- Wed Sep 15, 2021 11:27 pm
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: Pigmented Ciliate
- Replies: 9
- Views: 2838
Re: Pigmented Ciliate
This one is for sure Blepharisma . Besides the distinctive pink colour, which comes from a defensive quinone, you can see a lot of details in your image: the row of membranelles down the side, the simple cilia in rows over the rest of the cell, and the posterior water expulsion vesicle. There are pi...
- Wed Sep 15, 2021 4:52 am
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: Bob the mosquito munching on a paramecium
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2079
Re: Bob the mosquito munching on a paramecium
Definitely a chironomid, or midge as they are called. They are related to mosquitos but the larvae live in different kinds of water and the adults don't bite. Not all the ciliates are clear but the one that gets eaten is a type of hypotrich, which are generally flattened ciliates that use cirri (com...
- Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:41 pm
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Spiraling Organisms?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 4034
Re: Spiraling Organisms?
This is a spirillum. Spirochaetes are also helical in shape, but generally thinner with tight coils and actually move very differently, flexing as they go. Whereas spirilla are rigid and actually swim using tufts of flagella at the poles. Bacterial flagella work by turning, and this puts a torque on...
- Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:45 pm
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: More from the pond - Rotifer?
- Replies: 8
- Views: 3371
Re: More from the pond - Rotifer?
There's nothing wrong with just leaving it at rotifer if you're happy with that...but know there are a lot of types that are easy enough to recognize at a glance. This one is a Monommata , as shown by its long mismatched toes. Whether rotifers and cephalopods have a lot in common is I guess a matter...
- Fri Mar 12, 2021 4:40 pm
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Gastrotricha, rotifer and water flea?
- Replies: 10
- Views: 4585
Re: Gastrotricha, rotifer and water flea?
The second is for sure a bdelloid, and you for instance get a glimpse of some features like the dorsal antenna. It is not Adineta , which do not move like this...instead the wheels are contracted because it is crawling rather than feeding. Unfortunately without seeing those or eyes I think identific...
- Sun Feb 21, 2021 7:57 pm
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: From the microbe aquarium
- Replies: 6
- Views: 2673
Re: From the microbe aquarium
Seconded that these are lovely images. For the record, the rotifer is a Lepadella, where the foot is in a distinct notch in the lorica. In Euchlanis the lorica is instead folded over the foot, which emerges from a space between dorsal and ventral plates.
- Mon Feb 08, 2021 8:22 pm
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: A Flatworm(Rhabdocoela)-Solved
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2788
Re: A Flatworm(Rhabdocoela)
I think this might be a Stenostomum . I don't see the pharynx you would expect for Rhabdocoela, and it looks to be partly divided into two zoids. That is something you also see in Microstomum , but here I think you can just make out the ciliated pits characteristic of Stenostomum behind the front, w...
- Mon Feb 08, 2021 7:40 pm
- Forum: Miscellaneous
- Topic: Cavlier - Smith
- Replies: 10
- Views: 4906
Re: Cavlier - Smith
So, when the traditional taxonomist asks, as R.K. Brummit famously did in the pages of Taxon , "Am I a Bony Fish?", I enthusiastically say, "Yes! Yes, you are a bony fish!" and have always encouraged my kids to do the same. :D Well, see, I would differ on that. In this case I am glad to see classes...
- Mon Feb 08, 2021 5:07 am
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Calling on flatworm conoisseurs
- Replies: 2
- Views: 1612
Re: Calling on flatworm conoisseurs
The barrel-shaped pharynx and tapering tail confirm this is indeed one of the Dalyelliidae, whereas for instance Macrostomum would have a simple slit-shaped mouth and a broader tail. Unfortunately the different genera are not easy to separate; keys mostly go by details of the genital structures whic...
- Mon Feb 08, 2021 1:10 am
- Forum: Miscellaneous
- Topic: Cavlier - Smith
- Replies: 10
- Views: 4906
Re: Cavlier - Smith
His reasons for carving out Animalia and Fungi as separate "kingdoms" are pragmatic, not phylogenetic. It preserves continuity with old and familiar models used in schools and textbooks...and I can certainly see advantages to that. For one thing, it makes his system an attractive framework for gene...
- Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:36 am
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: Aeolosoma hunting Urocentrum turbo
- Replies: 3
- Views: 2212
Re: Aeolosoma hunting Urocentrum turbo
These are neat finds. However they are not actually Aeolosoma , which like you can see in Plasmid's video have broad muscular prostomia to scrounge up food and are typically full of coloured oil droplets. Instead these are naidids. The first one is a Chaetogaster , which are noted as predators of a ...
- Sat Oct 24, 2020 8:27 pm
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: First life found under a microscope
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2920
Re: First life found under a microscope
Some nice finds. The jelly-like organisms look to be ciliates of some sort, the first very possibly Stentor which tend to contract when they swim. The larva is a ceratopogonid fly, what variously get called punkies, biting midges, or no-see-ums depending on where you are. The one enjoying lunch is a...
- Thu Oct 01, 2020 4:32 pm
- Forum: Identification help
- Topic: Need Help to ID
- Replies: 8
- Views: 3517
Re: Need Help to ID
Some nice finds here. 1. is actually a Lecane , since the lorica opens on the sides and the foot is a single spike, not Lepadella which have an annulated foot in a notch. 2. is a colonial green algae, but seems to me loosely packed for Pandorina , and I think is more likely Eudorina or Yamagishiella...
- Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:48 pm
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: Aeolosoma?
- Replies: 7
- Views: 2927
Re: Aeolosoma?
This is not actually a segmented worm like Aeolosoma, but a flatworm. I am not quite used to them in this kind of lighting but I think it shows the sensory pits associated with Stenostomum.
- Mon May 25, 2020 5:58 pm
- Forum: Pictures and Videos
- Topic: Hungry fella
- Replies: 5
- Views: 2523
Re: Hungry fella
This is one of the Naididae, microscopic worms from the same major group as earthworms. I am not an expert but think the proboscis and the extra long second pair of setae mark this one as Pristina.