Ciliate ID help needed

Garry DeLong · Post by **Garry DeLong** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:43 pm

Right now I'm involved in doing some video work with Protozoa. The requirements of the job require organism ID. This one's got me stumped, although the cirri is a dead giveaway for the Hypotrich group. Jahn's book doesn't have it. The posterior "kink" to the left and the dark material near the posterior end are both characteristic. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the photos--they are screen captures from the videotape. I converted them to black and white because the color was unremarkable and I need to conserve space on my website (I'm almost out!). Please go to http://garrydelong.com/micro_demo for these photos.

piotr · Post by **piotr** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:57 pm

Garry - my bet: Uroleptus. You can check it here: The Hypotrichida from KAHL (Peter Eigner website) and here: Uroleptus - Protist Information Server. Could be Uroleptosis, too. I'm not sure, hypotrichs can be hard to identify...

Very nice images, by the way!

Garry DeLong · Post by **Garry DeLong** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 5:47 pm

Yep. Uroleptus was what came to mind when I first saw this. Uroleptus piscis is the closest in Kahl's listing because of the posterior "kink." However my particular specimens lack the slight ovoid morphology shown in Kahl. Also, I can't figure out the dark material posterior. This is characteristic--they all had the same stuff in the same place. Still, there are so many similarities to Uroleptus (especially the oral configuration) that I feel comfortable in placing this in that genus. Should be good enough for the video.
Garry DeLong

Kenv · Post by **Kenv** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 7:01 pm

Hi Garry, I think you might find "Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa" by D J Patterson at great help with ID's, especially as most of the pictures are fairly good quality photographs. I have both this and Jahn which seem to work well together.
Kenv

Garry DeLong · Post by **Garry DeLong** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:23 am

I think I will end up getting Patterson's book--everybody praises it . Amazon wants almost $100 for a new copy--so maybe it's gonna be used...
Garry DeLong

piotr · Post by **piotr** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 9:33 am

Another good book is Protozoology by Kudo (5th edition). If you don't have it, you can find it at www.abebooks.com. Also, they have the Patterson's book in $60-$70 range (new copy, they say!).

Kenv · Post by **Kenv** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:02 pm

Garry, I bought a "used" one which was rated as almost new. When I got it I could not have told the difference between that and a new one.
Kenv