Arcella (with gas?)

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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Charles Krebs
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Arcella (with gas?)

Post by Charles Krebs »

Well, it does appear so, but not because of a bad meal. Get to that later.

First... I found this Arcella racing around a recent wet mount. Now they don't move all that fast but I needed 33 images for the stack and during that time it would move from one side of the field of view to the other. (That may not look very far here, but it traveled about 1/2 its body width. These images are substantial crops). Not only that, it would also rotate at the same time. I thought I would give it a try anyway, and told myself if Zerene could align this mess I would have to give Rik an "atta-boy"! So kudos to Rik... his alignment routine did wonders :smt038

After taking the first image, I looked at other subjects on the slide and returned to the amoeba 5 minutes later. The test now had 4 large gas bubbles inside. So I quickly took the second image. Occasionally I have come across a testate amoeba with a bubble, but I was surprised to see this occur to this degree in one I had just been photographing.

Some hasty research provided some observations on why this occurs. Briefly... if the amoeba is unhappy with its surroundings, or its orientation, or the amount of oxygen in the water, the production of these bubbles inside the test allow it to float upward to a new location or orientation. It's interesting. Here are a couple of Google book excerpts that discuss it:

https://books.google.com/books?id=8QHQz ... la&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=6ODGv ... la&f=false

The images are DIC with 40/0.95 S Plan Apo. Canon EOS R camera.
Image

Image

Interesting how in the second image it appears that the large gas bubble may have displaced some of the amoeba, as you can see it around the periphery of the shell.

Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Your photographs are, as always, just mind boggling there Charles 8) and sitting here pondering this single celled animalcule within its test even more so. It is amazing how it can build so intricate a structure for itself to call home and to show such an intelligence as how to maintain it within its microhabitat.

Bruce Taylor
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Post by Bruce Taylor »

Amazing images, and an interesting post. I didn't know about the gas bubble trick. Very cool!
It Came from the Pond (Blog): http://www.itcamefromthepond.com/

Olympusman
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Arcella

Post by Olympusman »

Nice shots. From what I have read, arcella can also make a bubble on one side to facilltate flipping over. Between making tests and this behavior I marvel at the capabilities for a creature with no brain.

Mike
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

Sumguy01
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Post by Sumguy01 »

=D> Very nice.
Thanks for sharing.

WalterD
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Post by WalterD »

Beautiful images, interesting post. :)
Thanks for sharing.

micro_pix
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Post by micro_pix »

.

Great stuff! I was having a go at exactly the same thing the other day but eventually gave up. I ended up photographing an empty test. Thanks for showing that it can be done!

David

Robert Berdan
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Nice Focus stack

Post by Robert Berdan »

Nice Focus stack and lots of crisp detail. They move slowly, but I guess if you are making taking lots of images to stack and they rotate it can be challenging.
RB

sebba28
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Post by sebba28 »

Amazing.

pierre
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Arcella (with gas?)

Post by pierre »

Indeed eyeopening :shock:

Excellent!

Thanks for sharing this great piece of work Charles.
Regards

Pierre

nanometer
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Post by nanometer »

unbelievably excellent!

Marek Mis
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Post by Marek Mis »

Very impressive images Charlie !

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