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Surface detail of the peritrich ciliate, Pseudovorticella chlamydophora (Penard, 1922) Jankowski, 1976. Pseudovorticella is distinguished from Vorticella by silver staining which reveals a lattice-like silver line system in the former and circumferential lines without vertical connections in the latter. Pseudovorticella also has two contractile vacuoles. P. chlamydophora is distinguished by a distinct hyaline layer consisting of large cuboid pellicular blebs. The lattice-like pattern of these blebs is visible here. Feeds on bacteria. From freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho. DIC.
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Portrait of the peritrich ciliate, Pseudovorticella chlamydophora (Penard,1922) Jankowski, 1976. This genus is distinguished from the genus Vorticella by its grid-like silver line system. The transverse components of the silverline system of Vorticella species have no vertical connections. P. Chlamydophora has a thick clear pellicular layer composed of cuboid units, which give the cell surface a distinctive quilted appearance. The extended cell is an inverted bell shape connected at the aboral scopula to a contractile stalk. The cell is spherical when contracted. The stalk contracts as a coil rather than a zigzag (e.g. Haplocaulus). The peristomal disc is almost flush. The ciliature is reduced to two rows of peristomal cilia, which beat counterclockwise toward the funnel-shaped buccal cavity (seen here to the viewers left anteriorly). The roughly C-shaped macronucleus is oriented in the long axis (to the viewers left of midline here). A single contractile vacuole is seen adjacent to the buccal cavity. The otherwise identical P. vestita has two contractile vacuoles. Multiple yellowish food vacuoles are seen here. P. chlamydophora may be gregarious but does not form true colonies. Collected from a freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho May 2004. DIC optics.
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Opisthonecta (owe-pissed-though-neck-ta) - one of the peritrich ciliate, closely related to the sessile forms. However, this one is not sessile, but swims around. At the anterior end (upper) are the oral cilia (membranelles and undulating membrane) which form a spiral wreath which then enters into a narrowing channel in the cell to end at the cytostome. This is where food is packaged into food vacuoles, and several large food vacuoles are evident in this picture. Posteriorly, there is another wreath of cilia which help to propel the cell. Large curving macronucleus seen in the upper part of the cell. Differential interference contrast.
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Portrait of the peritrich ciliate, Pseudovorticella chlamydophora (Penard,1922) Jankowski, 1976. This genus is distinguished from the genus Vorticella by its grid-like silver line system. The transverse components of the silverline system of Vorticella species have no vertical connections. P. Chlamydophora has a thick clear pellicular layer composed of cuboid units, which give the cell surface a distinctive quilted appearance (seen en face here). The extended cell is an inverted bell shape connected at the aboral scopula to a contractile stalk. The cell is spherical when contracted. The stalk contracts as a coil rather than a zigzag (e.g. Haplocaulus). The otherwise identical P. vestita has two contractile vacuoles. P. chlamydophora may be gregarious but does not form true colonies. Collected from a freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho.June 2005. DIC.
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Opisthonecta (owe-pissed-though-neck-ta) - one of the peritrich ciliate, closely related to the sessile forms. However, this one is not sessile, but swims around. At the anterior end (upper) are the oral cilia (membranelles and undulating membrane) which form a spiral wreath which then enters into a narrowing channel in the cell to end at the cytostome. This is where food is packaged into food vacuoles, and several large food vacuoles are evident in this picture. Posteriorly, there is another wreath of cilia which help to propel the cell. Large curving macronucleus seen in the upper part of the cell. Phase contrast.
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Thuricola (thurr-ick-owe-la) is a peritrich ciliate which lives within a lorica. Contractile and this cell has withdrawn into the lorica. A flap has closed over the contractile cell and this features distinguishes this genus. Differential interference contrast.
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Surface detail of the peritrich ciliate, Pseudovorticella chlamydophora (Penard,1922) Jankowski, 1976. This genus is distinguished from the genus Vorticella by its grid-like silver line system. The transverse components of the silverline system of Vorticella species have no vertical connections. P. Chlamydophora has a thick clear pellicular layer composed of cuboid units, which give the cell surface a distinctive quilted appearance (seen en face here). The extended cell is an inverted bell shape connected at the aboral scopula to a contractile stalk. The cell is spherical when contracted. The stalk contracts as a coil rather than a zigzag (e.g. Haplocaulus). The otherwise identical P. vestita has two contractile vacuoles. P. chlamydophora may be gregarious but does not form true colonies. Collected from a freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho.June 2005. DIC.
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Group portrait of Vorticella citrina (Muller 1786) a sessiline peritrich ciliate. Part of the Vorticella convallaria complex.This species is lemon yellow to light green in color. The body has typical inverted bell shape. There is a peristomal lip. Peristomal cilia wind counterclockwise to the cytostome. There are fine annular striations on the cell body. At the aboral pole is a scopula, the organelle that secretes the contractile stalk. The stalk is a contractile myonemes enclosed in by a sheath, which is ovoid in cross section. The stalk contracts in corkscrew fashion unlike the zigzag contraction of the stalk in the similar genus, Haplocaulus. The nucleus is short and horseshoe shaped. There is a single contractile vacuole. Vorticella is not colonial but may be gregarious. Primarily bactiverous. Collected from freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho October 2003. Brightfield optics.
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Telotrochidium attached to stalk. The free swimming form of this peritrich is barrel shaped without oral bristle. This image was taken by Krishnakumar B. in a sample from an anaerobic bioreactor for organic rich wastewater treatment in Regional Research Laboratory-Trivandrum (CSIR-India).
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Thuricola (thurr-ick-cola) folliculata and 3 swarmers on the bottom of the lorica. The transparent lorica is equiped with a valve which closes the aperture as cell retracts. This specimen shows endosymbiotic algae. This specimen was collected in freshwater ponds near Konstanz, Germany. Differential interference contrast.
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Individual portrait of Vorticella citrina (Muller 1786) a sessiline peritrich ciliate. Part of the Vorticella convallaria complex. This species is lemon yellow to light green in color. The body has typical inverted bell shape. There is a peristomal lip. Peristomal cilia wind counterclockwise to the cytostome. There are fine annular striations on the cell body (seen here). At the aboral pole is a scopula, the organelle that secretes the contractile stalk. The stalk is a contractile myonemes enclosed in by a sheath, which is ovoid in cross section. The stalk contracts in corkscrew fashion unlike the zigzag contraction of the stalk in the similar genus, Haplocaulus. The nucleus is short and horseshoe shaped. There is a single contractile vacuole. Vorticella is not colonial but may be gregarious. Primarily bactiverous. Collected from freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho October 2003. DIC optics.
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This is a phase contrast picture taken using 40x/N.A. 0.75 objective.
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This sessile peritrich ciliat builds chitinous lorica with flap valve. The species houses symbiontic chlorellae. Multi layer image (DOF) shows ciliat and whole lorica with flap valve and epibiontic bacteria. Scale bar indicates 25 µm.See ZIP archive for more. Collected from littoral region (stand of Phragmites) of a rain storage reservoir in Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany). Images were taken using Zeiss Universal with Olympus C7070 CCD camera.
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This is a brightfield picture of a pair of Ophrydium versatile taken using 25x/N.A. 0.60 objective.
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Vaginicola (vadge-in-ee-cola) is a sessile peritrich ciliate. The cells live within a lorica. often found in pairs, the cells attach to the base of the lorica by the posterior ends of the cell. they can contract into the lorica. The oral cilia form a wreath around the anterior end of the cell. No body ciliature. Differential interference contrast.
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A dozen or so gelatinous colonies of this peritrich ciliate on the underside of a rock from a stream near Bristol, England. It's a pin.