Green testate amoeba

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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Charles Krebs
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Green testate amoeba

Post by Charles Krebs »

Found these testate amoeba and was curious about the green color. Couldn't quite figure it out until I came upon one where the test had been crushed by the cover slip. The amoeba appears to be full of zoochlorella, a single celled, symbiotic algae. On the first two shots I used a very small amount of cross polarization. Many of the quartz particles in the test would "glow" under cross polarization.

Olympus 20/0.70 objective. Brightfield illumination with slightly crossed polarization.
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Olympus 20/0.70 objective. Brightfield illumination with slightly crossed polarization.
Image


Olympus 100/1.40 objective. Brightfield illumination.
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rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Beautiful photos, and great observation! To paraphrase the Aladdin movie, "An entire ecosystem, in an itty-bitty living space!". :D

--Rik

bernhardinho
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Post by bernhardinho »

Hi Charles,

it's simply not fair that the finest photographers also encounter the most interesting specimens!! According to my book it could be Difflugia lobostoma which is known to feature zoochlorella.

Best wishes

Bernhard

beetleman
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Post by beetleman »

Very beautiful pictures Charles. I wonder if these small creatures would loose their symbiotic algae if they were enviromentally stressed like corals do when they bleach out due to stress?
Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Doug Breda

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