Any idea on these two cilliates.

[D0c]

Any idea on these two cilliates.

Is the first one a stentor?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154534235 ... datetaken/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154534235 ... datetaken/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154534235 ... datetaken/

[micro]

Looks like loxophyllum and a hypotrich

[Bruce Taylor]

I don't think the first ciliate is a Loxophyllum. The main diagnostic character of that genus is the presence of dorsal extrusomes, often in the form of tufts or "warts". We don't see any sign of dorsal extrusomes here, and the critter is also quite short and broad (litonotids such as Loxophyllum are typically more elongated, often longitudinally striated, and often with distinct transparent, or hyaline, zones at the margin of the cell). We do see a long oral bulge, running from the anterior to the posterior, wrapping around to the dorsal side. I suspect this is a spathidiid, such as Bryophyllum or Apobryophyllum (the first name is shared with a group of plants, unfortunately!). Was this sample from moss or soil, by any chance?

The second ciliate is a hypotrich, as micro noted. The AZM (adoral zone of membranelles) is in the "Gonostomum pattern," so the genus Gonostomum is likely (but not the only possibility).

[D0c]

My first guess was a hypotrich as well just wanted confirmation.

Bruce the Spathidiid was from a sample of moss from the edge of a canal.

I stumbled upon a youtube video of a Cultellothrix paucistriata which belongs to the Spathidiid family and it looks very similar to one I found.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wM05y-P1a7Y

[Bruce Taylor]

I'd forgotten about that video. I recorded that on my first microscope, when I was beginning to get interested in ciliates. These days, I wouldn't propose a species-level ID without looking at at least a few specimens in the same population. While it is probably in the same order as your critter (Spathidiida) the two are not very similar. The oral bulge of the ciliate I recorded is short and confined to the anterior of the cell, and supported by a fan of basket rods or nematosdesmata (in the video I label these with the old-fashioned term "trichites"). Your organism has a very long oral bulge running from the anterior, around the posterior, and onto the dorsal edge.

Bruce the Spathidiid was from a sample of moss from the edge of a canal.

That's the sort of habitat I expected. The prefix "bryo-" in Bryophyllum means "moss." I do suspect your creature is in the group Bryophillidae (which the authors Xu and Foissner rank as a family within Spathidiida).