Meridion circulare & ciliates

[Bernd]

Dear microphotographers:

This spring I once again found a very large number of colonies of the diatom Meridion circulare (I posted an image in March 2007) in a trickle beside a field. Of course, I could not resist to take several pictures, one of which I would like to share here. The diameter of the colony is about 225 µm.



I was really surprised to discover in the same sample several large, about 225 µm long ciliates which apparently had managed to ingest several of the quite large Meridion-colonies. Interestingly, the cells of the colonies still sticked together in the food vacuoles.





Canon Powershot G5, Zeiss Axioskop, Plan-Neofluar 40x/0,75 for the picture of the Meridion colony, Epiplan-Neofluar 20x/0,50 for the ciliate images. Brightfield illumination, picture 3 oblique illumination.


Bernd

[BJ]

Bernd,

Really excellent and fascinating photos. Congratulations and thanks for sharing! The Meridion cells which have been ingested by the ciliate contain lots of big oil droplets, but the colony in your first photo doesn't seem to have them.

Like us, do ciliates just love fatty foods?

Ciao
BrianO

[Charles Krebs]

Bernd,

I remember the shot from last year as well. I would love to find some of these. Fascinating subject.

I've seen ciliates with some unbelievable diatom "meals"... but this is the best yet!
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