more loxophyllum meleagris...

[hb2sbdb]

inspired by mintakax excellent loxophyllum meleagris video , i'm sharing some of my old ones of the same ciliate, taken a few years back that I don't quite remember the technical details, but from the look of them, it must had been either oblique, HMC, or a combination of both...

this one is about a group of them swirling around: https://vimeo.com/389393186

eating a rotifer that had the bad luck of bumping into the big guy : https://vimeo.com/389393965

and devouring a much larger prey ( a segmented worm): https://vimeo.com/389394331

hope you enjoy them as much as I did

[Bruce Taylor]

Oh, those are wonderful! I especially like the worm-devouring.

We don't see dorsal "warts" (bundles of extrusomes), so I don't think this is Loxophyllum meleagris. Some species of Loxophyllum have dorsal extrusomes that are not organized in marginal warts, and not easily visible in the light microscope, so it is reasonable to identify this as "Loxophyllum sp."

[75RR]

Great catches!

I especially like the worm-devouring

Agree! Must admit I thought it would not manage it.

[WhyMe]

Very cool videos! Poor little guy just was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[mintakax]

Wonderful videos ! I hope to see more of these in my samples. I didn't realize how predatory these guys are.

[hb2sbdb]

Thank you Bruce, for helping with the specimen's id. Other than this species, I'd also often seen a smaller type in my sample. and will try to get a picture or video for ID next time.

These guys are really predatory. The same one in the segment with the rotifer later took on another 2 rotifers, about 5 minutes apart. The rotifers just bump into it then became paralyzed, similar as in the segment. I'd seen it took on all types of critters in the same sample, including something that looks like (hard) algae. I just never saw them eating their own kind.

I guess it "manages" the big worm by ingesting, digesting then ..expelling, all at the same time, and while the worm is still alive