Litonotus?

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Bschnitzer
Posts: 57
Joined: Mon May 16, 2022 6:57 pm
Location: Northern Virginia

Litonotus?

#1 Post by Bschnitzer » Sun May 28, 2023 7:58 pm

From a local Northern VA pond. This is 40x. Watched for about 20 minutes, but didn’t observe any eating behavior. In this photo, the “neck” is about as long as it got. Most of the time it was about a third this length. The two large granules or nuclei in the main part of the body are probably clues to sp ID. Observed short cilia around most of the body. Continually stretching and probing the proboscis.

Thanks for looking.



IMG_2277.jpeg
IMG_2277.jpeg (99.83 KiB) Viewed 1181 times
1. Olympus BH2 BHTU trinocular w/DPlan objectives, Risingcam 20mp 1” USB
2. Motic SMZ 168 Stereo w/Nikon 1 V1
3. Extreme macro rig Nikon D500/PB6 bellows/10x CFI Achr/Raynox DCR150/Wemacro Rail

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josmann
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Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:23 am
Location: San Jose, CA

Re: Litonotus?

#2 Post by josmann » Mon May 29, 2023 11:49 pm

Amphileptus procerus - see page 154 in this book (warning, it's a big pdf - I recommend downloading it to your hard drive): http://www.wfoissner.at/data_prot/Kreut ... _1-267.pdf

The macronucleus nodules are even called out just as you speculated :)
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Bruce Taylor
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Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 11:34 am

Re: Litonotus?

#3 Post by Bruce Taylor » Tue May 30, 2023 2:25 pm

Yes, A. procerus! It resembles Litonotus cygnus, but has multiple contractile vacuoles and a little fan of extrusomes at the tip of the proboscis. The two-part macronucleus is a very common feature in members of the order Pleurostomatida, so it's not too useful as a character of the genus or species.

Bschnitzer
Posts: 57
Joined: Mon May 16, 2022 6:57 pm
Location: Northern Virginia

Re: Litonotus?

#4 Post by Bschnitzer » Tue May 30, 2023 6:21 pm

Thanks Josmann and Bruce! I had glimpsed similar critters a few times, but was never able to get a good enough look to warrant further study. I don’t think they like to be out in the open much.

Cheers.

Bob
1. Olympus BH2 BHTU trinocular w/DPlan objectives, Risingcam 20mp 1” USB
2. Motic SMZ 168 Stereo w/Nikon 1 V1
3. Extreme macro rig Nikon D500/PB6 bellows/10x CFI Achr/Raynox DCR150/Wemacro Rail

Javier
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Joined: Tue May 09, 2017 11:19 am
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Re: Litonotus?

#5 Post by Javier » Wed May 31, 2023 2:08 pm

Wonderful specimen!

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