MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

A little clip showing the Peristaltic Contractions of the gut of a Nematode.
I came across a wriggling mass of them in the bottom debris of my rain barrel. After lifting one out using one of my own hairs (glued to a wooden stick with a drop of mounting media) I first tried to pacify it with some dilute alcohol. It died instantly, and became mostly opaque. So then I decided to capture one live under a coverslip. It worked surprisingly well, so here is the result (The camera is my Lumix GF2 mounted via a c-mount)
The video is here: https://youtu.be/IcUdr47k_pg

Bonjour
Très belle vidéo
Cordialement seb

This is a nicely detailed video but not actually a nematode, which are not contractile like this. It is instead an oligochaete, from the same group as the much larger earthworms, sharing bodies divided into segments marked by bristles or chaetae.

Here I think the presence of eyespots and differentiation between ventral hooks and dorsal hairs both place it in the family Naididae, though I couldn't say which type or even how similar they would be from continent to continent.

Beautiful view of peristalsis.
Lovely the way you can see the connective tissue that holds the instestine wall and the dermal layer for each segment.

Wunderbares Video, aber, wie schon gepostet, kein Nematode...welches Objektiv wurde verwendet?

It's good that there are some expert biologists on this forum....I am certainly not one!
The first part was taken using a Zeiss Neofluar 6.3/0.20, the DIC part was done with a Zeiss Plan-Neofluar 16/0.50 imm in water immersion.

actinophrys wrote:This is a nicely detailed video but not actually a nematode, which are not contractile like this. It is instead an oligochaete, from the same group as the much larger earthworms, sharing bodies divided into segments marked by bristles or chaetae.

Here I think the presence of eyespots and differentiation between ventral hooks and dorsal hairs both place it in the family Naididae, though I couldn't say which type or even how similar they would be from continent to continent.

I agree. I have a video of an Oligochaete as well on youtube.
This is an excellent video. I enjoyed it immensely.