Jul 23-25, 2009
Video: wetland microlife 4 of 14 clips

This was a small and partly dried marshy spot in Fish Creek Park. The water was filled with algae in grey-green clumps, one of which was taken from around some fallen branches. A bright green tuft was almost all Spirogyra, while some duckweed with long roots had Mougeotia growing on them. The rest was a loose dirty mix with both.

There were many small crustaceans visible along the walls of the container, mainly chydorids but also some larger cyclopoids with eggs, ostracods, and Simocephalus. There were several sorts of fly larvae active at the surface, and also a larger cranefly larva below, but it was possibly moribund and soon perished.

The algae and debris were home to countless small oval ciliates, crawling and sometimes darting along surfaces, accompanied by Halteria and some Caenomorpha. There were also many scattered algae, mainly Cosmarium, small Closterium, single nostocalean filaments, and needle-like or curved diatoms.

There were many Chaetonotus on the duckweed and rotifers throughout the sample, most notably Lecane, larger Lepadella, and Squatinella. A variety of naked and shelled Amoebozoa also occurred, and several Actinophrys. Zoochlorellae were also common, occurring in Euplotes, Paramecium, and some detaching vorticellids.

↬ Thanks to protistologist Dr. Ferry Siemensma, author of Microworld: world of amoeboid organisms, for the identification of Netzelia.