division in unknown ciliate ID help please

[jc maccagno]

Pond water 40X objective 1 sighting only

[fpelectronica]

Hello
Trachelostyla
Francisco

[Bruce Taylor]

Nice find!

Is Trachelostyla found in fresh water? I do have a copy of Helmut Berger's monograph on the Trachelostylids, but have to run out to a dinner, right now. I'll check it later.

It's certainly a skinny Spirototrich, of some kind. I'm not sure you can get more specific than that....there are a lot of possible candidates, I'm afraid. To key it out properly you'd have to get a good close look at the distribution of cirri.

Incidentally, this isn't one ciliate in division: it's two ciliates making out (conjugation).

[jc maccagno]

Many thanks to both of you.

Bruce I do not find any references on the net that indicate a freshwater habitat. My local references are rather limited so I cannot comment. I have not seen this critter since the one sighting. My gosh what goes on in your drinking water !

Your help is appreciated. Thanks for looking
John

[Bruce Taylor]

Well, according to Berger, "Trachelostyla species mainly (exclusively?) occur in marine habitats and inland salt waters." (Monograph of the Amphisiellidae and Trachelostylidea, p. 477). So, that seems unlikely.

To identify this guy and single it out from the various slender & flexible Spirotrichs (Cossothigma, Hemisincirra, Lamtostyla, Uroleptoides, and lots of others) would require close observation of the cirri, I think.

[Mitch640]

Could this be Uroleptus?

[Bruce Taylor]

Could this be Uroleptus?

I don't think it can be ruled out. But the list of vaguely vermiform Spirotrichs is pretty long, and I'm not sure our view of the ciliature is good enough to home in on a particular sub-order, never mind genus!