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Mesodinium cinctum--Side and top views.
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Ribadelago de Franco, Castille and Leon, Spain
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Mohedas de la Jara, Castille la Mancha, Spain
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Image of Mesodinium rubrum. This ciliate contains chloroplasts (the dark brown areas in this specimen). It usually functions as a plant, living from photosynthesis. However, ocassionally it needs to replensish its supply of chloroplasts by eating a particular kind of microscopic protist- a 'cryptophyte'.
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Lardero, La Rioja, Spain
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Mohedas de la Jara, Castille la Mancha, Spain
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Mohedas de la Jara, Castille la Mancha, Spain
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Pera, Faro, Portugal
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Pera, Faro, Portugal
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Pera, Faro, Portugal
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Mesodinium (me-sew-din-ee-um) common marine ciliate, small with a wreath which includes forward and rearward pointing cilia. Often small tentacles emerge from the apex of the cell. The tentacles may seem forked at their tips They have a jumping motion often coming to rest, spinning for a few seconds before dashing off to somewhere else. One species includes red algal symbionts and may occur in sufficient numbers to cause a red tide - but not toxic. Phase contrast.
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Mesodinium (me-sew-din-ee-um) common marine ciliate, small with a wreath which includes forward and rearward pointing cilia. Often small tentacles emerge from the apex of the cell. The tentacles may seem forked at their tips They have a jumping motion often coming to rest, spinning for a few seconds before dashing off to somewhere else. One species includes red algal symbionts and may occur in sufficient numbers to cause a red tide - but not toxic. Differential interference contrast.
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Mesodinium (me-sew-din-ee-um) common marine ciliate, small with a wreath which includes forward and rearward pointing cilia. Often small tentacles emerge from the apex of the cell. The tentacles may seem forked at their tips They have a jumping motion often coming to rest, spinning for a few seconds before dashing off to somewhere else. One species includes red algal symbionts and may occur in sufficient numbers to cause a red tide - but not toxic. Phase contrast.
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Mesodinium. Cell observed in sandy and muddy marine sediments in the vicinity of Broome, Western Australia in September 2003. This image was taken using differential interference contrast optics. This work was supported by the Australian Biological Resources Study.
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Mesodinium pulex (CLAPARÃDE&LACHMANN,1859) STEIN,1867, a small haptorid ciliate. The anterior end is bluntly cone-shaped with extensile tentacular processes (attaching organism to filamentous alga in this image). Between the anterior cone and spherical posterior are a slight constriction and two girdles of cilia. The anterior girdle is grouped into three tufts in this species (yellow arrowheads). The ends of the tufts are furcate. The more posterior girdle of cilia lies close to the body at rest making it difficult to see. M. pulex, rests, motionless, or attaches by tentacular processes to the substrate and intermittently darts backwards for distances of many cell lengths. Feeds on bacteria and other protists. The two described freshwater species may differ only in the number of ciliary tufts seen in lateral view (i.e. 2 in M. arcarus and 3 in M. pulex). From freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho. Phase contrast.
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[taxonomy:genus=Mesodinium]
Date:
9 Sep 2011, originally collected mid-Aug
Location:
Freshwater fish pond in concrete tank, outside Life Science Lab 7. Walls were covered in filamentous cyanobacteria, and the bottom with fish waste. Water was mostly clear.
Pipetted sample from floc at bottom of tube which has settled after > two weeks
Microscope:
Bright-field with closed condenser aperture.
Camera:
Nikon D7000
Collector:
Brandon Seah
Scale:
20830 pixels/mm = 20.8 pixels/µm (40x)
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This ciliate is Mesodinium rubrum, a very common planktonic ciliate which usually relies on photosynthesis rather than eating phytoplankton. It contains chloroplasts from cryptophyte algae. It is about 30 microns long.