portrait

Description:

Portrait of Clathrostoma viminale (Penard, 1922) a frontoniine ciliate (surface view). Similar in overall appearance to but smaller than Frontonia leucas. The cytostome is located in a slight depression in the anterior half of the body (seen well in this image). There is a cytopharyngeal basket composed of fibrils (as found in Loxodes) rather than true trichites. The somatic ciliation is uniform with a postoral suture (seen in this image). The sausage-shaped macronucleus (not seen in this image) has an adjacent cluster of several (1-4) micronuclei at its posterior end. A single contractile vacuole is located in the posterior 1/3. Collected from a freshwater agricultural irrigation ditch near McCall, Idaho in September 2003. DIC optics.