Full Meal Deal

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micron
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Location: Delta, BC - Canada
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Full Meal Deal

Post by micron »

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Spring has definitely sprung in this neck of the woods (Canada’s westcoast). The local watering holes are beginning to show signs of a blooming microworld. While exploring a recent ditch sample I came across two small ciliates, each of which had managed to ingest a rather large lunch. Although I have often seen ciliates with diatoms inside these two take the trophy for the “open wide” contest. How do they manage to ingest such a meal? Has anyone seen it happen?

Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

Ron,
I've never seen it happen, but I have seen some amazing diatom meals inside some of these. It may belong to the family Frontoniidae. They have their mouth on the surface rather than in an oral groove.

from htttp://microscope.mbl.edu/scripts/microscope.php?func=imgDetail&imageID=1085
Frontonia is a peniculine ciliate and closely related to the familiar Paramecium. The mouth is supported by strong rods which assists Frontonia in ingesting its preferred food - diatoms and other moderate sized algae.

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micron
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Post by micron »

Charlie thanks info and link - I must keep an eye on this culture - I may get lucky and find one ingesting a diatom.

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