Ciliate ID help

[fpelectronica]

It is a ciliated but looks like heliozoan
Can you help identify it? thanks
http://youtu.be/c-DBqqhbpxs
Francisco

[jc maccagno]

Hello Francisco

Is it possible that you have captured something like Haltera in downward feeding position? The way it scoots off makes me wonder

All the best

John

[Bruce Taylor]

Hi, Francisco. It's a pretty amazing critter. It could well be a Cyclotrichium or Askenasia, seen from above.

I thought, too, of some sort of a transitional, "swarmer" form of the suctorian Sphaerophrya...but have no information about that.

An improbable, but interesting, thought: in his classic study of holotrichous ciliates, Schewiakoff includes a drawing of a spherical form of Actinobolinus radians (aka Actinobolina radians):



I've seen photos of Actinobolina with tentacles fully extended that look similar to your creature. However, they are usually oval in shape. And, in any case, we don't see a mouth, here, so we cannot put it in that category.

If I learn anything more, I'll be sure to contact you.

[fpelectronica]

Thanks John and Bruce.
Bruce I think if it corresponds to Actinabolina, I believe in 3:20 look at the mouth
Francisco

[Bruce Taylor]

You're right, Francisco. I have to admit, I didn't watch the video to the end!

It does look like this is Actinobolina radians.

It is quite a rare ciliate.

[fpelectronica]

Thanks Bruce
Sometimes the videos are too long and that po little entertaining
It is for the use of different lighting systems to try to bring out details which should help identification.
I will try to do shorter videos
Francisco

[Bruce Taylor]

On the contrary, Francisco, it is very entertaining! I was just doing too many things at once. (When I saw this bizarre creature, I thought of the Schewiakoff image and went off to upload it to photobucket...and I neglected to watch the end.)

Your videos are always fascinating, and I often go back and watch them several times. Also, the use of different lighting systems is extremely helpful.

[Mitch640]

Great find. Is this all one microbe? It looks like several, cause of the different shapes. And when you go to the blue filter, that one seems to have a hole in the bottom.

[Bruce Taylor]

Hi Mitch. I think the hole you see is the posterior contractile vacuole, which is shown in Schewiakoff's illustration of Actinobolina, above.

[Ecki]

Very interesting find! I will show the video tomorrow to a friend who is a real expert and report back his comments.

Regards
Ecki

[fpelectronica]

Thanks Mitch
Ecki, thank you for your interest, we will wait to see the answer to your friend regards
Francisco

[Ecki]

Francisco,

my friend looked at the video, said Actinobolina and pulled a book from a shelf with some photos Congrats to Bruce for the correct ID of this rare ciliate.

The long rays are tentacles that contain a toxicyst. The toxicyst is like a spear and can be discharged to catch prey. Amazing concept.

@Bruce: Can you give me the name of the book by Schewiakoff? It looks like it is supposed to be in my library

regards
Ecki

[Bruce Taylor]

Hi Ecki. This illustration is from Schewiakoff's Organizatsiia i sistematika Infusoria aspirotricha (Holotricha auctorum), published in 1896. It's in Russian, but the Internet Archive has a typewritten English translation by Prudence Kofoid (wife of Charles Kofoid, a prominent protozoologist in the early 20th cent.) The captions for the accompanying illustrations are in the Roman alphabet, luckily.

In the late 20s, Cecil Hoare published a handy translation of Schewiakoff's keys to the holotrichs (a dead taxon, but the keys are still useful!).

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... x/abstract

His earlier book (Beiträge zur Kenntniss der holotrichen Ciliaten, 1889)-- which, I believe, was based on his doctoral thesis -- was written in German, and has some very lovely colour illustrations (I'm in the process of cleaning them up in Photoshop, and will post them online when I'm done).

[Ecki]

Bruce,

thank you.