Frontonia leucas

Erik · Post by **Erik** » Sun May 20, 2007 12:49 am

Hello microscopists,

I found Frontonia leucas, which has a remarkable contracting Vakuole. The c. V. has star shaped arranged supplying channels. In the phase contrast it is to be recognized.

Technology: free handled Olympus C-40 through the eyepiece; 25x Papo; 10x achromatic objective pH; oblique illumination.

Many greetings

Erik

http://www.mikroansichten.de

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue May 22, 2007 10:17 am

Erik,

This is a very nice pair of photos. The phase contrast inset does a great job of identifying the contractile vacuole.

I do not know Frontonia personally. The book I am looking at says that the supplying channels are very long. Do you have another picture that shows that aspect?

The cilia are very sharp in oblique illumination. Am I correct to think that the subject has been flattened under a cover slip?

--Rik

Erik · Post by **Erik** » Tue May 22, 2007 1:08 pm

Hello Rik,

the ciliate was fixed between the microscopic slides. So his moves where slower and the thickness is much better for observations. Unfortunately I have only a 10x Ph-Objective, the resolution is not so high. Nevertheless I hope that you can see the supplying channels:

In the german forum the author of "Protozoological Monographs, Volume 3", Martin Kreutz, showed further excellent photos (DIC) with more details:

http://www.mikroskopie-forum.de/read.ph ... #msg-31450

Erik

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Tue May 22, 2007 5:29 pm

Interesting! They really are very long and skinny compared to some other species I have seen that have rays from the vacuole.

Thanks for the followup, and for the link to Kreutz!

--Rik

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Thu May 24, 2007 8:40 am

Excellent photos for handheld Erik...you must have a steady hand my friend.