Lacrymaria + "friends"

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 1:04 pm

Here's a "hunting" Lacrymaria with a few trachelomonas for color.

This is one of those shots where electronic flash was essential. The head was bobbing in and out very rapidly in every direction, and all you can really do is pre-focus and take plenty of shots, hoping the head and neck will be in the plane of focus (and even in the frame). Got lucky on this one, and it provided one of the better looks I've had of the head of an active live specimen.

Olympus BHS. Olympus 60/1.40 S Plan Apo. Olympus NFK 1.67x photoeyepiece.DIC illumination with electronic flash. Canon 50D.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 2:40 pm

Thats a great capture of this animal. But I have a question about it. I think I may have seen something like it in one of my samples. Is this capable of throwing that head for a long distance at very high speed? Say as fast as the filament of a vorticella can reel in the bell? I'm not exactly sure of what I saw, but that would best describe it. Wierd, I know.

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 2:48 pm

Congratulations
It's hard to get as much definition in an organism as "nervous"
Francisco

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 2:58 pm

Mitch,

Yes, very long distance and very fast (Although I'm sure it's nowhere near as fast as the spasmoneme contraction in a vorticella). It's virtually impossible to focus on the neck and head when it is really active. You will often find them with their body "hunkered down" in a bit of debris, and the long extensible neck darting out and swinging in all sorts of directions and distances. It really is one of the more bizarre things to observe in a little world full of bizarre... to us anyway... creatures.

Occasionally you'll see them catch something, and that too can be pretty strange to watch. Here's a not-too-good shot of that:
http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... php?t=4199

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 3:52 pm

I was pretty sure what I saw was on of your Lacrymaria as soon as I saw it, although I was only using the 4x and it didn't look much like your images. I did watch them for awhile though and the impression I got was of something fishing for his food. It wasn't like there was anything near where the head ended though. and there were at least two of them and possibly more going in other directions. The distance is so far though, that even a 4x could not hope to keep the full length in focus. Very interesting creatures.

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Sun Dec 19, 2010 2:44 am

Charles,

I never saw the head this detailed!

Regards
Ecki