Search found 58 matches

by actinophrys
Thu Jan 23, 2020 8:55 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Ciliated: Phacodinium metchnikoffi
Replies: 1
Views: 699

Nice work! A very pretty look at this unusual ciliate, one that doesn't seem to show up too often. I think this might be the first time I've seen even a photograph of one dividing.
by actinophrys
Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:28 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Ciliates in snot
Replies: 12
Views: 1532

I think the block was specific to Fortiguard. I don't know why the page might have been filed that way, but I've submitted to them to change its category to Education; it looks like it should be available to everyone now.
by actinophrys
Sat Nov 09, 2019 9:00 am
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Need help to identify bacteria in pond water
Replies: 4
Views: 884

Interesting! I think this is one of the purple sulfur bacteria like Chromatium or Allochromatium . Red to purple carotenoids are characteristic, and while in most photos the sulfur granules don't appear so different in colour, I imagine they would still be yellow if the light catches them right. The...
by actinophrys
Sun Oct 27, 2019 10:16 am
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Rotifers with parasites?
Replies: 3
Views: 1441

This isn't Habrotrocha or any other bdelloid, though, this is a ploimid with a short foot and two toes. The head is shown well enough to see the ciliated field and mastax, which look like for instance Cephalodella . What little I've found on infected rotifers seems reasonably similar; compare the pi...
by actinophrys
Tue Sep 17, 2019 12:21 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Ciliate IS this Climacostomum?
Replies: 2
Views: 966

These are hypotrichs; you can see cirri along the margins in addition to the membranelles at the front. Most kinds ( Oxytricha and the like) are hard to identify for certain, depending on details of how the cirri are arranged. In this case, though, there is also the deep oral cavity with its peculia...
by actinophrys
Mon Sep 16, 2019 5:14 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Trinema Amoeba
Replies: 3
Views: 1151

A very nice look at the scales – you can even see the serrated edges of the ones around the mouth. Those I think confirm it as a Euglypha. In Trinema and its family the opening has some modified scales but is characteristically on the side rather than the end of the shell.
by actinophrys
Tue Jun 11, 2019 6:31 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Various (ID?)
Replies: 15
Views: 2541

For the peritrich, that type of line pattern is typical of Pseudovorticella , in contrast to true Vorticella which only have horizontal lines. The two are very similar but it turns out became solitary independently. I understand it sometimes takes silver staining to distinguish them but not always; ...
by actinophrys
Sat Jun 08, 2019 12:06 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Colpoda with confusing macronucleus?
Replies: 6
Views: 845

This doesn't seem to have the groove typical of colpodids, either. You can partly see the mouth and oral cilia in the upper left of the photo. I think their shape mark this as a hymenostome, maybe something like Ophryoglena , which often have elliptical macronuclei but in some species more elongate ...
by actinophrys
Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:35 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Help determine the type of microorganisms
Replies: 13
Views: 2088

From what I can tell: #3 is not entirely clear, but from the colour I think it is plausibly a contracted Stentor such as S. multiformis , which are on a very short list of ciliates that produce bluish pigments. #8 is a fully intact Brachonella (unless some of the recent work on anaerobic ciliates ha...
by actinophrys
Mon Sep 10, 2018 9:56 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: what is this? (Planctomyces Bekefii)
Replies: 4
Views: 1075

Interesting! This looks a lot like Planctomyces, one of very few bacteria with distinctively shaped colonies. But while the size is right, I don't know why they would all have 6 cells. Where were they from?
by actinophrys
Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:32 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Brachyspira? (help with ID...)
Replies: 3
Views: 1072

These are spirilla rather than spirochaetes, which are like you say smaller, and also move differently. Spirochaetes are flexible and use axial filaments to squirm about. Spirilla are more or less rigid with external flagella; the shape takes advantage of the torque those produce to rotate through t...
by actinophrys
Mon Apr 30, 2018 8:35 am
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Freshwater plant. ID?
Replies: 12
Views: 3939

I do not know the charophytes particularly well, but might this be some genus like Nitella? My understanding was that in Chara proper, the whorls of branchlets are not themselves divided, and in most kinds you can see distinct longitudinal bands.
by actinophrys
Wed Apr 04, 2018 11:35 am
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: Identification
Replies: 4
Views: 1364

These are flagellate spores being released from a sporangium. In contrast to free-swimming colonies like green Pandorina or pale Uroglenopsis , where the flagella project outward, you can see here they start confined along with the cells themselves. The actual enclosure is harder to make out but you...
by actinophrys
Tue Feb 27, 2018 7:10 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: February crystals
Replies: 7
Views: 1600

Thank you, everyone. :)
I think I've heard of somehow preparing wax to capture shapes, but not nail polish, which sounds simpler. I imagine good impressions would depend on getting more flat plates, though; here the irregular and 3-D crystals were much more common.
by actinophrys
Sun Feb 25, 2018 10:28 pm
Forum: Photography Through the Microscope
Topic: February crystals
Replies: 7
Views: 1600

February crystals

This month I had a chance to take my dissecting microscope out into the falling snow. It isn't easy to use in the cold with subjects that you can't get too near to, but a few results turned out well enough that I'd like to share them. http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/userpix/4234_Snow0268_1.jpg...