Euglenid posing as a hermit crab?

[Free2Fish]

This morning I ran into this little euglenid that had taken over the empty test of an amoeba. Deliberate or extemporaneous turn in the road? Sadly, I believe we have to chose the latter although the dream of a hermit eugenoid should live on.

[DonSchaeffer]

I can't imagine anything like that to be deliberate when it comes to these organisms. You honor them with the question.

[Topcode]

Deliberate or not, that guy is chilling in a little protective house, even if it don't know it, cool thing to see. Plus, if its more stationary, it can be easier to play around with lighting and capturing it.

[Free2Fish]

Imaging was still difficult; the little guy just kept cruising in a circle. Other specimens, quite common when I ran into this one, didn't move much horizontally but rather twisted (remember that dance), mainly in the vertical direction. I was determined to get a better image of one today but so far they have eluded me.
I now wish I had kept the specimen overnight to see what was going on a day later. Oh well, lesson learned.
I did finally find another euglena but it kept moving around too.

[cuxlander]

Hello,

Call it deliberate or else. Lynn Margulis refers to the protist cell as the “conscious cell”.
It makes sense for a photosynthetic singleceller to search shelter inside an empty hyaline housing. And they obviously are quite determined as my few examples show:

Cheers
Hans,

[Free2Fish]

Thanks for sharing those Hans, this opens up a whole new vein of speculation for me. The evidence certainly seems to point to some sort of purpose for these motile protists. I've always held the view there are many layers of understanding that haven't yet been uncovered or are beyond our present level of comprehension.
Harry

[charlie g]

Hi all, many many protists have strategies for controlling their solar light environment..with out terming it thoughtful behavior strategies...we 'neutrally?' term such behaviors as : tropisms.

Some flagellate protozoa ( eg: Haematococcus pluvialis ) actually move their internal pigments to shield intense insolation ( sun light) from their interior organelles. Euglenoid protozoa react to different levels of sunlight ( insolation) by

relocating to areas of their environment with insolation they prefer. Other euglenoid flagellates move their internal pigments to shield their interior organelles.

In the recycling/ the decomposing of shelled/ testate /carapace / often times random opportunistic encampments of diatoms, protists, meiofauna encounter..then enter the 'shells' of nearly complete 'composted organisms'..a

natural process .

Euglenoid protozoa do not: 'twist' so much..rather these flagellates ..ungulate ..a propagating wave of body contraction head to tail.

[cuxlander]

Hello again,
here's another one.
The bottom one seems to take a breath of fresh oxygen through Hyalosphenia papilio's pore.
Cheers Hans