Help with identification / garden water life.

[Nanomedic]

Hello microscopists,

I did some natural observation yesterday (rain water collected in my garden + biofilm growing on an edge of plastic bucket). I observed the usual suspects (rotifers, diatoms, ciliates), until I have come across this beauty. Does anyone know what it is, or what direction should my investigation go? It appears to have a central structure in the middle (body?), with four elongating protrusions. Unfortunately, I could not examine the microscopic nature of these protrusions, like ?presence of chloroplasts, as the highest magnification I could reach on this occasion was 400x. My 60x objective lens is on the way from the Middle State, and I have no lens tissue left, so I decided not to use oil immersion . Any help will be appreciated! Images were taken using Swift 380T with Swift EC5R 5.0 MP digital camera, in a DIY combination of oblique illumination and blue light filter.

All the best,

Dom

https://www.flickr.com/photos/199591610 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/199591610 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/199591610 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/199591610 ... ed-public/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/199591610 ... ed-public/

[Topcode]

It looks like it could be a trichome from some plant, but I'm not sure

[Nanomedic]

Hi Topcode,

Thank you for your reply. I was considering whether it could be some plant debris. However, it does not seem to have clearly visible focal or non-focal areas of chlorophyll, nor does it appear to have a cell wall or be multicellular. It does appear to be relatively large, though (as compared to the diatoms seen in the right bottom corner of some of the pictures). Throughout the observation, I did not observe any movement. @microbehunter ?