Aug 25-29, 2012
Video: tunnelling by Atractos
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This was taken the day after some light rain, the first that month. Although it was warm and things dried quickly, these two puddles were found in dirt between a paved alley and small grass slope. Some algae was visible as floating pellets in the larger and a greenish film in the smaller one, both mainly gliding cyanobacteria.

Aside from the algae, the inhabitants were fairly scattered. The most common were brownish astylozoids, oval with an open front and short irregular tails. Most drops from the smaller puddle also contained one or two bdelloids, small diatoms, Halteria, and various other ciliates.

These were also found in the larger puddle but less often. Here there were also the occasional Nassulopsis, round suctorian, or narrow spirotrich. The last replaced the astylozoids as the most common type after four days or so. They were missing in the smaller puddle, which had its own peculiar types like green flagellates and Maryna.