Cyclidium glaucoma feeding.

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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Walter Piorkowski
Posts: 693
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:42 pm
Location: South Beloit, Ill

Cyclidium glaucoma feeding.

Post by Walter Piorkowski »

Cyclidium glaucoma feeding.
It is good to be back after a very long absence. I see that submissions have undergone some changes. Hope I did it correctly.
I have for your review some images of the protozoan Cyclidium glaucoma (Kahl). These are the first protozoan darkfield images with a, new for me, 1960’s Nikon MS-D microscope. I have recently finished a restoration. The instrument has been fitted with a Leitz 100 watt quartz halogen light source, Leitz darkfield condenser and flash unit. The instrument also has phase contrast capability with DL, DLL and BM phase.
I have recently gotten back into the study of protozoa and have watched this creature scoot and stop many times. Apparently when it stops, it begins feeding by unfurling a sail-like undulating membrane. Darkfield shows strong currents generated by this device. I was never able to see much detail in phase contrast imaging of the sail component. The darkfield has brought out fine details of the sail structure but does not do much for the large cilia surrounding the body. I include 6 images of the subject that show different aspects of the sail. Each stop found it positioning itself in a slightly different rotation, adding to an interesting study.
With the subject only 25 micrometers long, I am pleased with the detail. I am puzzled that none of the food vacuoles that are part of the internal features of this protozoan are visible in the images. Only one shows a slight hint. Please note that the second and third images seem to show a slit like opening at the upper right. The sail seems to be emanating from this opening. If anyone is familiar with this subject, maybe they can confirm my suspicion.
Regards
Walter

Nikon MS-D microscope with PFM photo unit.
Nikon 40x 0.65 na achromat
Leitz 0.80 na dry darkfield condenser
Nikon D800 DSLR
Olympus PE 2.5x projection eyepiece
Vivitar 252 auto flash on manual.
Attachments
7553MSDW.jpg
7558MSDW.jpg
7557MSDW.jpg
7555MSDW.jpg
7554MSDW.jpg
7552MSDW.jpg

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