Campanella ciliate

[Francisco]

Campanella

[DonSchaeffer]

Really fine images. The light is incredible. How did you get that?

[Bruce Taylor]

Yes, they're very beautiful!

Francisco, I can see why you're thinking of Campanella, because the golden colour is very similar. However, these have short contractile stalks (containing a spasmoneme, visible at 0:20-0:24), so they are definitely not in the genus Campanella, which has branching colonies with non-contractile stalks (and a very deep peristomial lip with multiple windings of peristomial cilia, which we don't see here).

[Francisco]

Really fine images. The light is incredible. How did you get that?

Thanks for your comment.
I use a PZO microscope with DIC system
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[Francisco]

Yes, they're very beautiful!

Francisco, I can see why you're thinking of Campanella, because the golden colour is very similar. However, these have short contractile stalks (containing a spasmoneme, visible at 0:20-0:24), so they are definitely not in the genus Campanella, which has branching colonies with non-contractile stalks (and a very deep peristomial lip with multiple windings of peristomial cilia, which we don't see here).

Thanks for your comment.
Maybe Zoothamnium?

[Bruce Taylor]

Zoothamnium is colonial, with branching stalks containing continuous spasmonemes (so, the entire colony contracts together). In contraction, the stalks form "zigzags" rather than spiral coils, as in Vorticellidae. Your peritrichs appear to be solitary, not colonial, and the stalks appear to be spirally contractile (as in Vorticellidae). It is possible that these zooids are freshly settled on their substrate and have not yet fully extruded their stalks...so, we can't be sure that the short stalks are a feature of the mature organism, and I am also not sure we can rule out the possibility that is is a colonial species in an early phase of growth. I don't see any reason to suspect Zoothmamnium, though.

So, what is it? I would guess it is something in the family Vorticellidae. Short-stalked vorticellids have been recorded. For instance, Pseudovorticella coscinodisci, an epibiont on diatoms, is described as having a stalk too short to coil. But, as noted above, these could also be newly settled cells whose stalks are not completely formed.

[Francisco]

Thanks Bruce.
In the water sample I found several of these "colonies"
Greetings

[Bruce Taylor]

Beautiful! The stalks are much longer here, and clearly have helical spasmonemes, so these are in the family Vorticellidae. They appear to be pseudocolonies, rather than true colonies (i.e. clusters of solitary peritrichs, rather than forming branched "trees", like Carchesium). So, Vorticella, Pseudovorticella or Vorticellides.

[Dennis]

Francisco,
Good footage !

[Francisco]

Beautiful! The stalks are much longer here, and clearly have helical spasmonemes, so these are in the family Vorticellidae. They appear to be pseudocolonies, rather than true colonies (i.e. clusters of solitary peritrichs, rather than forming branched "trees", like Carchesium). So, Vorticella, Pseudovorticella or Vorticellides.

Thanks.

[Francisco]

Francisco,
Good footage !

Thanks.