Another Stentor Story

Wolfgang Bettighofer · Wed Mar 21, 2007 1:35 pm

According to Ralf's interesting Stentor Pics I want to show a picture series of defecating S. coeruleus.
Watching the journey of digestion vacuoles in Stentor I suddenly became witness of defecation process.

Cheers, Wolfgang

Stentor coeruleus
Zeiss Universal
NF 25/0.6 , DIC
Luxeon 3W LED
Olympus C7070WZ
1/500s, f/5.6 ISO 80
Auto Exposure Mode

Planapo · Post by **Planapo** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:32 am

Hello neighbour Wolfgang, you did an excellent job documenting the process of defecation and were rewarded with very instructive photos!
Thanks for sharing!

I have not been able to observe this process in reality, only know the drawings from textbooks. And I wouldn´t have expected so relatively large objects of complex structure being thrown out.
So that´s what a Stentor´s poo looks like.

Cheers,
Betty

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Sun Mar 25, 2007 12:45 pm

WOW, what a great series of photos Wolfgang. It never crossed my mind to think how these animals pass their waste. Thank you...very interesting

I guess they do not recycle....Diatom shells in one bag....veggies in another...

Wolfgang Bettighofer · Sun Mar 25, 2007 12:59 pm

beetleman wrote:I guess they do not recycle....Diatom shells in one bag....veggies in another...

They seem to be old fashioned

Quite interesting detail: Especially some of Scenedesmus specimen (look at upper right photo) with their rigid cell wall passed Stentor in very good condition. Nice green color, no damage visible...

Wolfgang

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:22 am

Beautiful capture of a fascinating process!

Somehow I had never thought of protozoa defecating at all. (What a silly oversight!) But now I'm thinking of all sorts of analogies -- Jonah and the whale, tomato seeds in sewage sludge...

Truly first-rate pictures -- thanks for posting!

--Rik

Wolfgang Bettighofer · Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:18 am

rjlittlefield wrote:Beautiful capture of a fascinating process!

Somehow I had never thought of protozoa defecating at all...

--Rik

You're welcome Rik!
The chance to recognize the process ranges higher the longer you observe a specimen. My Stentor defecated two times in approximately one hour.

Wolfgang

Planapo · Post by **Planapo** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 10:03 am

My Stentor defecated two times in approximately one hour.

Well Wolfgang,... you know... of course... some of these algae sometimes can cause diarrhoea...

Cheers,
Betty