The hungry worm
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:38 pm
This is a video of a small annelid actively feeding in a sample I collected. I don't know what the name of this worm is, but I am guessing it is some kind of oligochaete (if you have ideas on what this is, I would appreciate your comments). It was fascinating to watch the worm extend some kind of organ to grasp clumps of debris (food) and bring it into the worm's body for digestion. This worm is also selective in what it eats. At a couple of different points in the video, the worm ejects a pine tree pollen grain it has ingested and even uses its spines on the body to move the offending grain away. This video was taken using a Canon 1300D camera with an Amscope adapter on a Zeiss Photomicroscope III. The objective was a 16x Neofluar, optovar set at 1.25x, DIC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2bbSbPSwQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2bbSbPSwQU