I had originally put this up as Tube-forming ciliate, thinking it was collecting material to form a sort of lorica. It turns out, maybe obviously in hindsight, this is really just debris heaped up by the way it drills for food. Even so the behaviour seems peculiar, and there is good reason none of us recognized it at the time.
In that puddle I had only seen the one. This last September I found a similar puddle where they were very plentiful, and was able to get slightly better images, which supported them as unusual hypotrichs (as called by Berger) or stichotrichs (as called by Lynn). I had been advised that if I found more, I could get in touch with ciliatologist Dr. Bill Bourland, and we arranged that I would ship him a jar in hopes some would survive.
- Atractos.jpg (47.59 KiB) Viewed 4524 times
This probably counts as bragging - which I hope you will forgive, since surely if there were any place for it, it would be here - but hopefully also a positive example of how far our hobby can go. There is a lot to be discovered and many places to be explored, and with close attention even amateurs may have a chance to make real contributions.
