Movie inside - Help needed to identify

[hkv]

Hi,

I am compiling a movie and would appreciate any help I can get to identify some of the creatures in the movie. I will give credit at the end of the movie for those who successfully identified the right species. (or you can be anonymous of course )

Unfortunately, my identification skills (among many others) still needs major improvement. I will later post the full movie in HD when I have most creatures identified. I have been struggling with the Lightroom and imovie for a few days now. So many learning curves to climb.

Movie on this link.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b001bny0oz020 ... t.mov?dl=0

(EDIT: This is an old version. See link below for latest movie)

[kit1980]

I just watched your video - stunning clarity and details!
Can't help with id, sorry.

[zzffnn]

Very nice video! I also like the part show the location.

I think you showed a Colpidium and a diatom in your video, not a Paramecium and a Neutrum. There is a Arcella too (referring to the crushed circular shell-like protist from your "Punctured and dying" thread).

For more acurrate ID, you may need to provide higher magnification, say at 400x total magnification. And just one video for each subject would help too.

The pocket microscope you have is a Swift FM-31, not a Omax clone, correct? Do you know if it has condenser lens under light source - how does its 40x objective perform (with a condenser lens, NA 0.65 cannot be reached)?

[KurtM]

Since Fan mentioned something about location, I took a look at the video. Ah yes, fantastic! Is this where you live, then, per chance?

(I guess it just doesn't matter to most people, but for me it makes all the difference in the world if I can see where a person, sample, photograph, or whatever is from. That it might literally be anywhere on Earth makes it meaningless to me.)

The organism at around 3:55 in the video is a diatom. Also, you seem to be finding a lot of desmids that appear to be dying. In my experience it's unusual to see them only partially populated with chloroplasts in fresh samples. I see it more often in samples that have been on the shelf for a good while, whereas in a month or two desmids die off altogether.

At 4:12 the sparkly green one left of center is also a desmid, as is the half-populated one further left past what I believe is a euglenoid.

[hkv]

Thank you Kurt, zzffnn and kit1980. I will update the titles accordingly!

Yes, I agree with you about the location. It is much more fun if you know where to find what you are looking at. The "pond" shown is very close to our summer house. At Åland, a small island in the middle of the Baltic Sea. I live in Stockholm, which is 4 hours traveling from the pond.

The water in the bottle is now almost three weeks old. I guess the desmids are starving for more sun. I will try to expose it to sunlight and see if I can keep them alive for some time.

[hkv]

The pocket microscope you have is a Swift FM-31, not a Omax clone, correct? Do you know if it has condenser lens under light source - how does its 40x objective perform (with a condenser lens, NA 0.65 cannot be reached)?

Yes, it is a Swift FM-31. Works OK. It does have a condenser assembly, but I do not have a diaphragm. I have not really tested it in detail. Use it only for field work to see what I have in the collected water. As soon as possible I move over to the Olympus. If there is something specific you want me to test, I would be happy to help out.

[zzffnn]

^ Thank you.

I was under the impression that at least some FM-31 clones do not have condenser.

It would he highly appreciated, if you can run the FM-31 with some Klaus Kemp test diatoms. Maybe Nitschia or Pleurosigma. I wonder if the 40x objective and condenser combo is really performing at NA 0.65. The TWX-1 can resolve Pleurosigma very well (and beyond) with its condenser: http://www.baertierchen.de/wb_apr10.html

You can make DIY offset oblique with condenser diaphragm fully open (or absent).

[hkv]

^ Thank you.

I was under the impression that at least some FM-31 clones do not have condenser.

It would he highly appreciated, if you can run the FM-31 with some Klaus Kemp test diatoms. Maybe Nitschia or Pleurosigma. I wonder if the 40x objective and condenser combo is really performing at NA 0.65. The TWX-1 can resolve Pleurosigma very well (and beyond) with its condenser: http://www.baertierchen.de/wb_apr10.html

You can make DIY offset oblique with condenser diaphragm fully open (or absent).

OK, I'll test tomorrow. I happen to have a slide from Klaus Kemp

[actinophrys]

Going through the video:

• 1:56-2:24 – the possible Euglena are genuinely so, or at worst some other very similar euglenids. Recent studies have split off several new genera that are hard to tell apart, but I'm not sure any of those with metaboly (the shape-changing) are common enough to worry much.
• 2:24-2:58 – these are probably all Closterium, as Kurt says with varying damage affecting the chloroplasts.
• 2:58-3:18 – as zzffnn says the unknown is a broken Arcella, and then there is another partial shell of the same above the nematode worm.
• 3:18-3:28 – the green object looks like another euglenid that has rounded out in reaction to the water; 4:04-4:20 is similar. I don't think the little colourless cell can be identified at this level of detail, but it would definitely taking knowing them better than I do.
• 3:28-3:38 – here I have to disagree, this is not a Paramecium or Colpidium. The latter do have a similar indentation for the mouth, but are more cylindrical in shape. This is instead a flat ciliate that feeds on films, either Chilodonella or some relative; you can partly make out the oral basket near the middle as well as a water expulsion vesicle on one side.
• 3:38-3:52 – this is indeed Trachelomonas; 4:20-4:34 is similar.
• 3:52-4:04 – like others say this is a diatom. They look a bit like desmids, but are usually yellowish and their glass cases tend to have squared margins, which you can see as sharp lines in your video. This is one of a number of raphid kinds, with faint grooves on the faces that secrete mucus and propel them back and forth.
• 4:34-5:26 – this is a neat find. The identification looks right but just for the record has a typo; it should be Monommata (from Greek omma, ommat-, eye).

[Bruce Taylor]

[*]3:28-3:38 – here I have to disagree, this is not a Paramecium or Colpidium. The latter do have a similar indentation for the mouth, but are more cylindrical in shape. This is instead a flat ciliate that feeds on films, either Chilodonella or some relative; you can partly make out the oral basket near the middle as well as a water expulsion vesicle on one side.

Agreed. That little guy is a chilodonellid (without a closer look at the cilia, we can't get down to genus level).

[hkv]

Thank you all for your valuable comments! I am impressed by your skills to identify my finds! I will post a new movie tomorrow with updated description for each clip.

[hkv]

Here is a link to the post with the final result!

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3627