Sep 13-17, 2014
Previous sample

At this point there had been both early snow and then light rain. Much of it had dried, but in this alley a dirt puddle was apparently sustained by a pile of melting snow on the grass just above it. It was still large enough to contain a floating mat, made of gliding cyanobacteria, which was taken along with some mud from below.

Aside from bacteria, ciliates were predominant. The most common were spirotrichs including narrow crawling types, springing Halteria, and digging Atractos contortus. The latter would trace out winding paths or pull together heaps of dirt particles as they searched about the slide, which I have not seen from other types.

There were also many vorticellids, probably larger and smaller colpodids, Phascolodon, and brownish astylozoids with irregular tails as before. Some mention may also be given to occasional suctorians on films, Maryna, and small green flagellates.

↬ Thanks to ciliatologist Dr. William Bourland for the identification of A. contortus in water sent from this puddle, which he gives a full description in European Journal of Protistology vol. 51 (2015), and also to Dr. Ivan Dovgal for the identification of Metacineta.