MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

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.

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

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.

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

Wonderful specimen!