Vaginicola

[molehill]

It is now mid winter in Auckland, New Zealand. Even though the weather has been very mild I was a bit disappointed
with the lack of activity in the water sample I collected from a stream which runs through the park behind our house.
I found Stentor in this stream earlier on in the year. However it wasn't completely lifeless. .
I looked through a old book to give me a clue. A google search turned up a meagre but useful result.

Vaginacola ........ I love the old print

Also notice the banding in the phase image.

The images where made with a Meiji Techno MX5000 and a Canon EOS 40D






Meiji S Apo 20x 0.65 400ASA 1/250sec


Meiji U Plan PH 20x 0.40 400ASA 1/20sec

[rnabholz]

Sorry your sample wasn't more active, but what you did get is really interesting!

I had never seen this before, and you present two great shots of it, and that super vintage illustration. Thanks for sharing and the introduction.

[75RR]

However it wasn't completely lifeless. .

How true ... Excellent catch!

[billporter1456]

Nice images and I loved the old illustration you provided. Vaginicola is one of my favorite organisms to photograph. Thanks for sharing!

[zzffnn]

Very beautiful photos, thank you!

[exmarine]

Great photo's and now a little bit about this Protozoa. This is a loricated peritrich ciliate. The cytoplasm of this species is green owing to the symbiotic green algae. The ciliates project from the lorica when feeding but can contract into it for protection when stimulated e.g. by vibration.
It is not uncommon for two cells to inhabit the same lorica.

Many larger species like Vaginicola have the ability to contract , a device which protects them from turbulence in the surrounding water, or from larger predators, (flatworms and snails) which may glide over the submerged material.

I find its always good to know something about these protozoa.

[JimT]

It is now mid winter in Auckland

Stay warm

Very nice images and the accompanying illustration and thank you Exmarine for the additional info.

[gekko]

Great to see your beautiful images again, molehill. It is nice that you show the peritrich extended as well as contracted. Excellent photos. The brightfield captures delicate details with great clarity. The phase contrast image has its own beauty, and nicely reveals the bands in the lorica that remain invisible in brightfield (I've never seen those before). Do you, by any chance, have a phase contrast image with the Vaginicola extended?

[billporter1456]

The phase contrast image has its own beauty, and nicely reveals the bands in the lorica that remain invisible in brightfield (I've never seen those before).

I am wondering if the "bands" might be an artifact. I done lots of video of Vaginicola with phase contrast and never seen those bands. These two videos are examples: [/youtube]

Maybe some interaction between the illumination (LED?) and the camera? I certainly don't know for sure, just wondering.

[Bruce Taylor]

I love the old print

I recognize it. A few years ago, I cropped out and enhanced the ciliate images from C. G. Ehrenberg's Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen and posted them in a couple of places on the net. That pic of Vaginicola tinctus was one of them.

Lovely pics of a sweet organism...thanks for showing them here! I especially like the phase contrast image, which shows the faint annuli of the lorica, may be left over from the construction process. Donald Ott, an algologist at U. of Akron, has made a rather wonderful time-lapse video which shows how Cothurnia (a closely related ciliate) builds its little bottle-home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J_L0ntoDrY

[billbillt]

I took the liberty of downloading and enlarging an area of these "bands"... It appears they are individual rings as Bruce Taylor points out.. They must be the segments that make up the lorica..

[billporter1456]

I especially like the phase contrast image, which shows the faint annuli of the lorica, may be left over from the construction process.

Hi Bruce, thanks for chiming in on the "bands." Strange that I have never seen them despite doing several phase contrast videos of Vaginicola and Cothurnia. But if they were an illumination artifact, I guess they would have extended across the field of view.

[Bruce Taylor]

Bill, in the phase contrast view on your first video -- around 0:57 - 1:00 or so -- I imagine I can see very faint annuli on the right side of the lorica...a series of faint horizontal shadows...

Or, maybe I'm nuts.

In any case, there is a fair bit of variation among (and within!) species. Distinct annular corrugations are fairly common on vaginicolid loricae (and in many other ciliates, such as Metacystis or any number of tintinnids), so perhaps it isn't so strange if subtle "bands" are visible in some "hyaline" loricae but not others. Some Cothurnia from Kahl:

[billporter1456]

Bill, in the phase contrast view on your first video -- around 0:57 - 1:00 or so -- I imagine I can see very faint annuli on the right side of the lorica...a series of faint horizontal shadows...

Or, maybe I'm nuts.

In any case, there is a fair bit of variation among (and even within!) species. Distinct annular corrugations are fairly common on vaginicolid loricae (and in many other ciliates, such as Metacystis or any number of tintinnids), so perhaps it isn't so strange if subtle "bands" are visible in some "hyaline" loricae, but not others. Some Cothurnia from Kahl:

Bruce, thanks for that great information! It's really nice to have someone as knowledgeable as you on the forum to help out. And while you may be "nuts," you are correct about the faint shadows in my YouTube video. I just went back to the original video file and looked at it closely. The horizontal shadows (6 or 8 of them) are definitely there on the right side of the lorica.

[zzffnn]

Donald Ott, an algologist at U. of Akron, has made a rather wonderful time-lapse video which shows how Cothurnia (a closely related ciliate) builds its little bottle-home:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J_L0ntoDrY

Thank you, Bruce, for your comments.

It is great to see a pro's work. Dr. Ott has lots of high quality and interesting YouTube videos, in addition to many research publications.

[gekko]

I'd like to also add my thanks to Bruce. As I think I said before, every time Bruce (or for that matter "actinophrys") writes something, we learn something.

Edit: corrected typo.

[molehill]

Thank you all for the lively discussion, links, videos and analysis of my post, very much appreciated.
It is a great way to learn.
Unfortunately I didn't get a phase image of the Vaginicola fully extended, I was concentrating on the banding
So I hope to find some more specimens in the water sample I have.
I noticed the lorica in billporters video is almost transparent whereas in my image it is optically a lot denser then
the surrounding medium. Could this account for the banding showing up more prominent in my phase image?

Molehill

[Bruce Taylor]

.It is great to see a pro's work. Dr. Ott has lots of high quality and interesting YouTube videos, in addition to many research publications.

If you need to know everything about Vaucheria, he's your man. A really nice guy, too...which seems to be a common trait among microscope enthusiasts, professional and amateur alike.