Apr 14-16, 2009

This was taken from a dog park where the snow had recently melted, leaving a large puddle over the dead grass. After a day this had mostly dried up, except a smaller dirt-bottomed section, where a number of water boatsmen and beetles were hiding. Some smaller animals were also found: mosquito larvae, copepods, and a tardigrade.

Water from the first day was teeming with ciliates, especially Halteria, Astylozoon, and flat spirotrichs. There were also some litostomes like dileptids, and vorticellids along with a colony of non-contractile sessilids. Mixed in with these were very common colourless-seeming Uroglenopsis and some dinoflagellates.

Another sample there the next day had more algae including dinoflagellates, different euglenids, and occasional green algae or more golden Uroglenopsis. There were fewer ciliates but still common Halteria and loose vorticellids. Some ribbed and flat spirotrichs occurred near the bottom, and fast didiniids near the top.

↬ Thanks to ciliatologist Dr. Peter Vďačný for the identification of Phacodinium metchnikoffi and to phycologist Dr. Pavel Škaloud for the identification of Uroglenopsis.