Motile Suctorian?? 40X 100X

[jc maccagno]

pH 12 alkaline lake sample collecte November 2011. Recently this organism has appeared..swims in corkscrew fashion clockwise and also up and down..rigid pellicle..speed like a slow Paramecium. The size of all seen so far is in the 60u range. The organism is flattened A-P.
This ciliate? is covered with tentacles much like sessile suctorians
There appears to be very fine cilia anteriorly and agitation of surrounding water makes me suspect ciliate all around the periphery.
It is my impression that suctorians only have a ciliate phase when they swarm.I cannot find any info on a ciliate that has "tentacles" like this.

15 -30 u circular suctorians are found in abundance in this sample.

Any ideas would be appreciated

John

[carlos.uruguay]

Hi.
I have seen a similar organism with smaller tentacles and a long posterior flagellum.
It was moving rapidly turning on itself
But I have not found references to
A salute

[jc maccagno]

Hello Carlos

Sorry for taking so long to write to you. So far no news on this organism. I have sent pictures of it to a retired Micro zoologist at the University of British Columbia. I wll pass on his comments when I receive them. Thank you for taking the time to write
Best wishes

John

[Bruce Taylor]

Hi John. It looks a lot like a Podophrya, of some kind (and, therefore, a suctorian).

Compare this pic of Podophrya fixa (from William Bourland's Idaho collection on micro*scope):



http://starcentral.mbl.edu/microscope/p ... geid=23065

[Bruce Taylor]

Here is an interesting article on the physical changes (such as the emergence of cilia and the elongation of the body) that occur when Podophrya fixa becomes motile:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1 ... 7708682119

In case it won't give you access to the .pdf, here's the relevant section:

[carlos.uruguay]

Hi John, Bruce.
The suctorio I have filmed resembles Podophrya
It is circular and has a long flagellum.
It might be a stage of development as regards the text that shows Bruce.
a salute
carlos[/list]

[jc maccagno]

Thank you Bruce & Carlos

I was under the impression that the swarm stage was a smaller organism than this one. Your pictures and discription are greatly appreciated.

John