Lacrymaria olor video - feeding and dying

billporter1456 · Post by **billporter1456** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 4:15 pm

Even though I know that ciliates spend much of their time feeding, I have found it surprisingly difficult to get a decent video of the moment when their prey is captured. I have watched Lacrymaria many times and seen it shoot its motorized mouth right by appropriately sized food again and again without ever snaring it. So I felt lucky this spring in getting several captures on video. I also captured a scene where Lacrymaria appears to just curl up and die.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7O7HVqyglA

Pau · Post by **Pau** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:45 am

Excellent video! So nice to see several feeding sequences, something unique.

billporter1456 · Post by **billporter1456** » Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:21 am

Pau wrote:Excellent video! So nice to see several feeding sequences, something unique.

Thanks, Pau!

I have looked at many Lacrymaria videos on YouTube, but found only a couple that show feeding and none that show multiple instances of feeding.

Regards,
Bill

Protos · Post by **Protos** » Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:34 am

Bill this is fantastic !
I have watched L. olor many times; haven't had a chance to see it feeding.
Instead of Euplotes I would put a coin of Aspidisca ;-)

billporter1456 · Post by **billporter1456** » Thu Jun 05, 2014 9:02 am

Protos wrote:Bill this is fantastic !
I have watched L. olor many times; haven't had a chance to see it feeding.
Instead of Euplotes I would put a coin of Aspidisca ;-)

Hi Protos, I appreciate your compliment! And I think you are probably correct about Aspidisca. I thought it might be a Euplotes because it appeared to be "walking" on the detritus and I had read that Euplotes exhibit this "walking" type of movement. But I just watched some videos of Aspidisca and see that it also "walks" on stuff. I'm pretty much of a newbie at microscopy having just started doing it last fall, so I'm poor at identifying microorganisms. Thanks for correcting me and I will add an annotation to the YouTube video that indicates that the prey in this scene may well be Aspidisca.

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:56 pm

Great work, Bill! Yes, Aspidisca, without question (a Euplotid, so you were close!). Most spirotrotrichs are adapted for walking. It's what those thick ventral cirri are for.

billporter1456 · Post by **billporter1456** » Fri Jun 06, 2014 1:52 pm

Bruce Taylor wrote:Great work, Bill! Yes, Aspidisca, without question (a Euplotid, so you were close!). Most spirotrotrichs are adapted for walking. It's what those thick ventral cirri are for.

Bruce, thanks for helping out with the ID of the prey. Identification is not one of my strong suits!

By the way, do you know whether Lacrymaria stuns its prey, maybe with trichocysts? In the video, in meal #4, it looks like it hits or strikes the Aspidisca, backs off a bit, and then engulfs it.

Regards,
Bill

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Sat Jun 07, 2014 4:01 am

Very nice

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 12:34 pm

Nice video!

Rogelio

billporter1456 · Post by **billporter1456** » Mon Jun 09, 2014 6:40 pm

fpelectronica and RogelioMoreno, I thank you both for your kind remarks and for watching the video. I have enjoyed the photographic efforts of both of you as well!