Sunday, November 16, 2008

On our last week of observations I observed many of the same species that I have been observing the past four weeks. I have seen multiple annelid, paramecium, gastrotrich, and difflugia. The amoeba population, however, has gone down since last week. Last week I was able to observe quite a few, but this week I only saw one dead one. This could be a result of them hiding in water bubbles or a lack of food. This last week I was able to observe two new species. They were the homalozoon and the lembadion. The homalozoon is a ciliate with individual extrusomes that lie under the mouth. It was clear green with a distinguished central vacuole, and I almost mistakened it for a flatworm. The lembadion is a planktonic scuticocilate; it is scoop shaped and clear and its entire body is covered in flagella. One such instance I saw two lembadion who were connected most likely due to splitting. The source I used to identify these species was Free-living Fresh Water Protozoa by D. J. Patterson.

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