Long green cell with red 'eye'

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steve
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Joined: Sun May 02, 2010 3:58 pm

Long green cell with red 'eye'

Post by steve »

I was looking at some water from a pond in a nearby park and I kept seeing these:

Image

Here is a closeup (I greyed out the background to make the file size smaller)

Image

Any ideas what they could be? Is it a type of algae? It was moving slowly but steadily across the slide, in the direction of the red blob at the front of the cell.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Not my area of expertise, but Euglena acus, perhaps? (Other images HERE and HERE. Google image search will find many more.)

--Rik

steve
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Joined: Sun May 02, 2010 3:58 pm

Post by steve »

Looks right to me - thanks!

I ordered a book on freshwater protozoa today so hopefully I can look this kind of thing up in the future. How do you normally identify things? Do you use a book or have you just seen a lot of these things before?

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Do you use a book or have you just seen a lot of these things before?
Some of each. As an admin here at photomacrography.net, I see good pictures of quite a variety of critters. That gives me some idea what to go looking for.

In this case, the red eyespot, green color, and habitat suggested Euglena, so I did a Google search on that. Some of the hits reminded me to go visit the Protist Information Server at http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp . A search on Euglena there took me to the overview shots at http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/pdb/images ... a/euglena/ , and poking through the images then suggested E. acus.

But like I say, this is outside my area of expertise. This could well be a different Euglena, or some other group entirely.

I suggest posting in the regular Photography Through The Microscope gallery, as opposed to here in Beginners Micro. That way your images will be seen by more people who know these things well.

--Rik

gpmatthews
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Post by gpmatthews »

I'm pretty sure it is Euglena acus. I posted one some while ago:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... glena+acus

it looks very similar to yours.

- looking forward to seeing more of your pictures on the Photography Through The Microscope gallery
Graham

Though we lean upon the same balustrade, the colours of the mountain are different.

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