Unknown for ID please 40X objective pond water

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jc maccagno
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Unknown for ID please 40X objective pond water

Post by jc maccagno »

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Bruce Taylor
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Post by Bruce Taylor »

The pictures are none too clear, and we can't see movement, but I might suggest Halteria chlorelligera Kahl, 1932 (= H. grandinella var. chlorelligera). Or perhaps some other small Oligotrich with chlorellae (there's a Pelagohalteria viridis that might be worth looking into).

I'm interpreting those projecting lateral members as setae...

jc maccagno
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re ID

Post by jc maccagno »

Thank you for looking and thanks for your reply. The orgnism did not move like Halteria or like a ciliate...more like an amoeboid movement.
I have not seen it since. Unfortunatelly my pictures are not the best either

john

Bruce Taylor
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Post by Bruce Taylor »

Ah, so it's a testate amoeba with resident chlorellae. I was interpreting the filopodia as cilia & setae, but clearly that's wrong. Maybe Ferry Siemensma will be able to help! :)

Ferry
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Post by Ferry »

It is an amoeba, but a little hard to identify because of the low resolution. It might be a Nuclearia species or a Vampyrella. It has just sucked a cell of a filamental algae, hence the green color, which are no zoochlorellae. After some hours the green color gets orange or red, when it is digested. Often these amoebae form cysts to digest the food.

Ferry

Bruce Taylor
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Post by Bruce Taylor »

My eyes are opened. :shock: :lol: Thanks for that, Ferry.

It's interesting how expectations can direct (or misdirect) perception. At first, taking the filopodia for cirri, I simply disregarded the very conspicuous soft appendage visible in picture #1. Having learned that the motion of the creature was amoeboid, that shape immediately jumped out as a pseudopod. I can scarcely believe I hadn't seen it clearly, before!

Then, expecting to see a test -- perhaps because I'd spent too much time staring at Francisco's Plagiophrys and its cousins! -- I interpreted the globular body as a rigid structure. However, picture #3 clearly shows that this amoeba is not testate: some pseudopods are attached to the outer surface of the cell!

But I didn't see that until I expected to (with Ferry's guidance).

It's one of the pleasures of this hobby, for me: as one returns to the same images, morphological features change from invisible, to subtle, to forehead-smackingly obvious.

Now, I really must go look at Wittgenstein's duck-rabbit picture again...maybe I can settle that question once and for all. :D

jc maccagno
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unknown for ID

Post by jc maccagno »

Many thanks Ferry and Bruce

John

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