Frontonia leucas

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Sat Nov 17, 2012 2:40 am

This is Frontonia leucas (Ehrenberg, 1833) from the bottom sediment of a ditch. It can be found in plankton as well and prefers beta-mesosaprobic to alpha-mesosaprobic environments. Frontonia leucas feeds on bacteria, flagellates, diatoms, algae up to 50 μm in size, naked amoebas, testate amoebas (Arcella, Difflugia), ciliates (Coleps, Aspidisca) and even small metazoans (rotifers). The two most important characteristics for identification are the size of the oral apparatus compared to the overall size of the species (see image 1) and the single CV with long collecting channels.
In dirty environments (alpha-mesosaprobic) Frontonia leucas is common in sediments up to 5 cm depth.

40x, DIC

40x, DIC

Many thanks to Bruce for helping me to identify F. leucas!

Regards
Ecki

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Sat Nov 17, 2012 4:12 am

beautiful photos

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sat Nov 17, 2012 5:36 am

Nice pictures!

Rogelio

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 1:42 am

well done Ecki....very interesting shot!

arturo

Ecki · Post by **Ecki** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 1:52 am

Thank you Jacek, Rogelio and Arturo!

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sun Nov 18, 2012 10:53 am

I like the second image a lot. Like a transparent, non invasive autopsy

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:06 pm

Wonderful shots... they have a very nice visual "feel" to them.

carlos.uruguay · Post by **carlos.uruguay** » Mon Nov 26, 2012 4:34 pm

Beautiful images of frontonia!
carlos