Identificaciones de crseaquist

Mag. 400x

• A water sample was taken on 09/03/2023 from pond-edge using a 10µ dip net to enrich for microbes. Air temp. 80°F.

Rotifer with spiny lorica. Dead. Foot not visible though the opening in lorica that accommodates the foot is visible. This specimen looks very much like Plationus patulus as seen here https://www.plingfactory.de/Science/Atlas/KennkartenTiere/Rotifers/01RotEng/source/Plationus%20patulus.html.

Mag. 400x

• A pond-side water sample was taken on 07/31/2023 using a 10µ dip net to enrich for microbes. Air temp. 75°F.

Small flagellate with a probing "nose". My scope could not resolve the critter cleanly, but it was fun to chase, after it swam into my field of view. (The 2nd image shows the small, inconspicuous, shadowy figure as it appeared in the 400x field.) I could only see it for a short interval before I lost the ability to track it. For fabulous images and video of R. nasuta, see the observations posted by iNatters @crseaquist and @zookanthos: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true&taxon_id=881489&place_id=97394&preferred_place_id=1&locale=en-US.

Urocentrum turbo (O.F. Muller, 1786) from a freshwater sample from saprobic northern edge benthos of spring-fed coastal pond at Ocean Dunes Apartments in the Atlantic Double Dunes Reserve. Sampling site situated 250 meters north of the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Imaged in Nomarski DIC on Olympus BH2 using SPlan 40x objective plus variable phone camera cropping on Samsung Galaxy S9+. The cells measure 56 um in length.

Medium-sized (50-120 um long) barrel-shaped ciliate with broadly rounded ends and slightly waisted equatorially, narrowing slightly posteriorly. Oral aperture equatorial, located at anterior end of a longitudinal groove situated in the posterior body half, oval in outline with its axis lying obliquely to that of the major body axis. There is undulating membrane on the right edge of the aperture and 3 membranelles within the cavity. The posterior oral groove is ciliated and towards the posteriorly. Somatic ciliation is restricted to 3 girdles, (1) around the equator consisting of short dense cilia; (2) immediately anterior to this a much wider girdle of longer less densely packed cilia which may or may not reach the body apex and (3) a girdle lying in the posterior body half and consisting of long less-dense cilia which never cover the terminal pole. Contractile vacuole posterior, fed by 4 long serving canals. Macronucleus horseshoe-shaped lying in a transverse plane in posterior body half surrounding micronucleus. Single species genus.

Classis: Oligohymenophorea
Subclassis: Peniculia
Ordo: Peniculida
Familia: Urocentridae
Genus: Urocentrum
Species: Urocentrum turbo

Went over to the Stratford Park area of Tandy Hills to get some water samples to play with my microscope... I need to get a light microscope instead of the dissecting scope for some of these... Stuff to do in the future! :) Also, spotted some other stuff here.