Jun 14-16, 2014
Next sample

This was from a broad shallow puddle in a grassy field, taken a day after rain. The water was filmy and packed full of old brown strands, extending into a circle caked all around the rim, though with some longer green tufts growing through. The sample included some dead grass and other loose debris from near the edge.

The material was full of thin greenish filaments, especially toward the bottom, mainly cyanobacteria though various green algae were also present. Small Nostocales colonies were also reasonably widespread, and in places there were countless free-swimming bacteria, most curved and apparently divided in four.

Flagellates were common throughout including green euglenids and colonies like Pandorina and Synura. There were also widespread rotifers, notably Lecane and Lepadella, as well as some amoebae or shells like euglyphids and arcellids. Larger crustaceans included a variety of water fleas as well as copepods.

↬ Thanks to protistologist Dr. Ferry Siemensma, author of Microworld: world of amoeboid organisms, for confirming the identification of Clathrulina elegans shells and to phycologist Roman Romanov for confirming the identification of Oedogonium.