Colpodacoupled2

Description :

Description: English: I am tentatively identifying this species as Colpoda spiralis. This comes from a hay infusion made by tossing some grass (including some soil clinging to the roots) and a few stray pine needles into the plastic top of a "cake box" container (from a pack of 25 DVDRs) and then adding tap water than had set for a couple of weeks. The culture was started May 27 and on June 3 several members of this species suddenly appeared. In previous hay infusions based on samples from this same location (95841) several species of colpoda had been observed but none that even remotely resembled this. I must admit that I don't fully understand all the terms used in description of colpoda http://www.nies.go.jp/chiiki1/protoz/morpho/colpoda.htm and it is difficult to fully describe a species based solely on observations through a light microscope. Additionally, I haven't found any pictures of Colpoda Spiralis (a picture is worth a thousand words!) However, the defning feature described for Colpoda spriralis certainly seems to be present in this species! If this is Colpoda sprialis then this is, as far as I can tell, the first time is has been reported in CA and northern CA at that. Also, it was not in the usual "tree hole" habitat. Date: 3 June 2009. Source: http://www.3dham.com/colpoda_spiralis/. Author: John Alan Elson.