some time ago I was lucky to find Thysanomorpha bellerophon (PENARD 1914), which was seen very seldom since its discovery.
It lives hidden in the mud of nutritious ponds and can only be found while it is swimming freely:
Fig. 1: T. bellerophon, swimming
The ciliates is easily recognized by a band of noticeable papillae around the body which are contracted tentacles:
Fig. 2: T. bellerophon, contracted tentacles
If you wait long enough, the animal calms down and the tentacles are expanded. With this tentacles the ciliate anchors itself to the substrate and waits for pray.
Fig. 3 : T. bellerophon, expanded tentacles and waiting for pray
A closer look to the tentacles shows, that the tip of them is filled with extrusomes, which can be fired onto pray if touched:
Fig. 4: T. bellerophon, tentacles; the inset show a tentacle while expanding
I could observe, that T. bellerophon - in my micro-aquarium - hunted only gastrotrichs. Other ciliates are ignored, even if accidentally killed. The video shows T. bellerophon freely swimming and - anchored down - the hunting of a gastrotrich (Ichthydium sp,):
I observed the animals in a micro-aquarium for nearly two weeks. A more detailed report of the observations con be found in the German forum for microscopy: https://www.mikroskopie-forum.de/index. ... c=37505.0.
Best regards
Michael
He composes the music, too. Another one of the same organism: