Lunch

oxkarthemighty · Post by **oxkarthemighty** » Thu Mar 13, 2014 3:55 pm

Haven't been around these parts in a while. I figured spring is upon me and I would make myself a little more prevalent again.
Found 7 of these little fellas munching on a dead Ostracod. I am not aware what they are. If anyone can be of assistance I would appreciate it.

Taken with a 40x Oly objective

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 6:48 am

Do you have other pictures? What I see here suggests a species of Phialina (a ciliate that resembles Lacrymaria, but lacks that organism's long, mobile "neck").

Greg Gavelis · Post by **Greg Gavelis** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 11:57 am

You'd certainly expect to find ciliates munching on such a meal, but I don't see any cilia on these cells. The spiral covering on the outside looks like the pellicle of euglenids. Unlike Euglena, a few freshwater euglenids lost photosynthesis are are scavengers, such as Astasia. If they moved by a pulsing, twisting motion, that would be the smoking gun.

http://tolweb.org/Euglenida/97461

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 5:56 pm

Greg, if you look closely at the anterior of the organism on the left, you might see what I take to be a haptorid-type oral bulge. I don't know of any euglenid with a structure of this kind.

In the image below, I've flagged this "snout," and pointed to a small patch of what I take to be somatic cilia. On a lacrymariid, especially in contraction, the kineties spiralling around the body appear as ridges in the pellicle, as on these guys.

The organism on the right, in the original image, has a large posterior vacuole, which I'm interpreting as a CV. (Again, I would not expect to see this on Astasia...when euglenids have contractile vacuoles at all, they usually empty into the reservoir/gullet). A caudal tuft (of slightly-longer cilia) is faintly visible, as well.

Of course, I might be misinterpreting the image...but the more I look at it, the more I see haptorid ciliate.

oxkarthemighty · Post by **oxkarthemighty** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:01 am

Sorry for the late response, I was out of town and otherwise occupied.

Bruce Taylor wrote:Do you have other pictures? What I see here suggests a species of Phialina (a ciliate that resembles Lacrymaria, but lacks that organism's long, mobile "neck").

I'm sorry but I do not. Come to think of it, it would be in my best interests to take some brightfield shots as well. I think I will be making that a practice.

Bruce Taylor wrote:....Of course, I might be misinterpreting the image...but the more I look at it, the more I see haptorid ciliate.

You hit the nail on the head with haptorid ciliate, that is exactly what it looked like in the scope.

Thank you both for the input!