I was planning to post this image and I noticed Ron posted his interesting image of Spirogyra with a fungi. This is a rotifer that was still active but totally filled with fungi. I think the egg is also full of it. Quite terrifying.
You are right Ron, it is nice to post beautiful images but it is even more interesting to write about about all kinds of biological aspects of the subjects we observe!
Wim
doomed rotifer
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An interesting and thought provoking image Wim. Makes one wonder if a similar fungi could infect and take over the human body as well. Excellent photogrpah by the way, good lighting and detail in this. As I said and interesting post, thank you.
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Kenneth Ramos
Rutherfordton, North Carolina
Kens Microscopy
Reposts of my images within the galleries are welcome, as are constructive critical critiques.
Kenneth Ramos
Rutherfordton, North Carolina
Kens Microscopy
Reposts of my images within the galleries are welcome, as are constructive critical critiques.
Nice shot Vim! Hard to believe the rotifer carried on with such an extensive fungal “infection”. I not seen this before, and a search of library failed to turn up a single reference to such a circumstance. One book did comment that investigations of fungal life cycles and ecology are an ideal area for the “amateur” microscopist as few institutions are active in this field.
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In Dusenbery's "life at Small Scale: The Behavior of Microbes' on page 57 in the section on shooting projectiles it notes with picture:
"The parasitic fungus Haptoglossa mirabilis infects its rotifer host by means of a gunlike injection cell only 8um long. A swimming rotifer creates currents that trigger the cell to shoot a tube through the animal's cuticle and then pump a spore through the hypodermic-needle - like device into the rotifer"
"The parasitic fungus Haptoglossa mirabilis infects its rotifer host by means of a gunlike injection cell only 8um long. A swimming rotifer creates currents that trigger the cell to shoot a tube through the animal's cuticle and then pump a spore through the hypodermic-needle - like device into the rotifer"
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WOW, Wim
And you say the rotifer was still functioning somewhat? Organisms at all levels hold on to life dearly, don't they? This is just a terrific image of something I've never seen before. This is one of the things that's great about this group. We all get to see some terrific images and learn something new nearly every post. Thanks for joining on, my friend.
Best regards as always,
And you say the rotifer was still functioning somewhat? Organisms at all levels hold on to life dearly, don't they? This is just a terrific image of something I've never seen before. This is one of the things that's great about this group. We all get to see some terrific images and learn something new nearly every post. Thanks for joining on, my friend.
Best regards as always,
Tom Webster
Administrator
Phoenix "The Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA
Think about this...maybe Murphy is an optimist!!!
Administrator
Phoenix "The Valley of the Sun", Arizona, USA
Think about this...maybe Murphy is an optimist!!!
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