Ciliate ID

dragonblade · Post by **dragonblade** » Fri Sep 14, 2018 8:34 am

I found some moss which I dumped into a container full of rain water. Examining the contents with my microscope, I was hoping to see some tardigrades but didn't have any luck. Instead, I found this ciliate.

Just wondering if anyone would be able to identify it? I have seen this same organism in a video that someone put together from different sources which was set to music. Though no names were displayed.

This is a video frame of the organism.

And a video I uploaded to youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT3h084c1Ew

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Fri Sep 14, 2018 7:55 pm

It's a damaged or deformed hypotrich.

dragonblade · Post by **dragonblade** » Sun Sep 16, 2018 1:03 am

Ah thankyou for the ID. I had the impression that it was a well known and common kind of ciliate.

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Sun Sep 16, 2018 8:59 am

dragonblade wrote:I had the impression that it was a well known and common kind of ciliate.

It may well be a common species, but a deformed one.

In any case, to identify hypotrichs, you need to take a very close look at the arrangement of cirri on the cell (especially the ventral cirri). We don't have enough to go on, here.