Vorticella

[gekko]

Vorticella found in water from the dish under a potted plant.

Brightfield; 20x objective; shutter speed 1/1000 s at 400 ISO.

[mrsonchus]

Lovely image of an intricate creature, beautiful clarity and lovely tones. really like the image.

[JimT]

They show up in the oddest places. Was it alone or were there others?

[gekko]

John B, thank you very much for your very kind comment.
JimT, I saw another Vorticella on on the same slide, so there must be others. I also saw small ciliates and rotifers that I tried to photograph but were too fast and I couldn't get a single picture where most of the rotifer was in focus.

[JimT]

Often happens that protists live in potted plant soil and emerge in the dish below after a hard rain or heavy watering.

I found a rotifer once in a dried (read "well dead") leaf at the bottom of my car door. I have no idea how it managed to survive.

Fun discovering the unexpected

JimT

[mrsonchus]

Wow - I've just noticed also how small they are, the 50µ scale-bar puts it at about the same size as a 'medium-sized' pollen grain! Amazing creature - I might have a go at finding some.

[vasselle]

Très belle photo
Cordialement seb

[gekko]

Thank you, seb.