Favoritos de woodillj

Stephanopogon apogon including giant forms from the near shore benthos of a marine channel connecting Gardiner's Bay and Three Mile Harbor.

The first one I found was a giant at 125 um, much larger than most of the bloom at 30 to 75 um. I watched as it ingested a diatom and proceeded to go spastic twitching and adhering its mouth to the slide. I realized that smaller individuals were blooming and gathering nearer the edge of the slide.

I also observed a strange form of conjugation or some other phenomenon.

I sent some pics to my friends Ivan Čepička and Bill Bourland in Prague who informed me that I had a treasure trove of an amazing organism: Stephanopogon. I am sending them samples for molecular phylogenetic analyses.

Stephanopogon closely resembles certain ciliates and was originally classified with them ([1], but is now considered related to heterolobosean flagellates. The cell is somewhat flattened, with multiple smooth flagella arranged in rows running from the front to the back, and has an anterior mouth supported by rods. They feed on bacteria, diatoms, and other smaller organisms. There are 2-16 nuclei, but they are not differentiated into macronuclei and micronuclei as occurs in ciliates. They have a cosmopolitan distribution.

Because nuclear dimorphism is absent, Stephanopogon had been regarded as an evolutionary intermediate between the ciliates and other protozoa, and possibly an ancestor of the animals as well. Corliss and Lipscomb showed that it is not cytologically similar to ciliates, lacking their complex pellicle and infraciliature.[2] Further electron microscopical studies added details to the understanding of the cytological organization of Stephanopogon.[3][4] Yubuki and Leander demonstrated that Stephanopogon is closely related to Percolomonas within the Heterolobosea. The bases of the flagella in both genera are attached to an electron dense cytoskeletal material,[5] but it has been argued that this is not an apomorphy of the clade [6]

It has recently been included as a heterolosean in the class Percolatea, along with Percolomonas.

Stephanopogon mesnili from the intertidal benthos of marine estuary Accabonac Harbor. With its 4 anterior barbs and size of 45 um, my observation corresponds to Stephanopogon mensnili (see discussion below and supporting figure). Imaged in Nomarski DIC on Olympus BH2 using SPlan 40x objective plus variable phone cropping on Samsung Galaxy S9+.

"STEPHANOPOGON is a taxon of ciliate-like protists from marine sediments. These cells are flattened, with an extensively ciliated ventral face, and a broad anterior feeding apparatus that is used for the raptorial capture and ingestion of prey, including pennate diatoms and other surface-associated protists (Patterson and Brugerolle 1988; Larsen and Patterson 1990; Yubuki and Leander 2008). Originally Stephanopogon was treated as an unusual type of ciliate, on the basis of light microscopy data (Entz 1884; Lwoff 1923, 1936; Jones and Owen 1974), and then as a protist of uncertain affinity, due to its ultrastructural dissimilarity from ciliates (Lipscomb and Corliss 1982; Patterson and Brugerolle 1988). Molecular phylogenies have since established that Stephanopogon is actually a member of the taxon Heterolobosea, and is most closely related to Percolomonas (Cavalier-Smith and Nikolaev 2008; Yubuki and Leander 2008) with some possible ultrastructural apomorphies also nominated for the Stephanopogon–Percolomonas group (Yubuki and Leander 2008)" (1).

"Six species of Stephanopogon have been described so far: S. apogon, S. mesnili, S. mobiliensis, S. paramesnili, S. colpoda and S. minuta. These species are distinguished from one another by differences in the number of barbs,
the number of flagellar rows on the ventral surface and cell size (Jones and Owen 1974; Lei et al. 1999).

S. apogon is easily distinguished from the other five species because it is large (50–90 mm in length), has 12–14 rows of flagella and is the only species without barbs at the anterior end of the cell (Al-Qassab et al. 2002; Borror 1965; Jones and Owen 1974; Patterson and Brugerolle 1988; Larsen and Patterson 1990).

S. mobiliensis and S. mesnili have five and four anterior barbs, respectively (Kahl 1930; Jones and Owen 1974; Lwoff 1936). S. mobiliensis is 19–25 mm long and
possesses eight rows of flagella (Jones and Owen 1974), while S. mesnili is 40–70 mm long and possesses 12 rows of flagella (Dragesco 1963; Kahl 1930).
The remaining three species of Stephanopogon have three anterior barbs. Cells of S. colpoda are 50–90 mm long and have 12–14 rows of flagella (Entz 1884; Dragesco 1963; Kahl 1930; Hayward and Ryland
1990).

The cells of S. paramesnili are the largest in this genus, at 60–110 mm long, and have 11–13 rows of flagella (Lei et al. 1999). S. minuta are among the smallest in the genus, at 32–35 mm long, and have 7–8
rows of flagella (Lei et al. 1999)" (2).

1. Morphological and Molecular Characterization of a New Species of Stephanopogon, Stephanopogon pattersoni n. sp. Won Je Lee, Kai Miller & Alastair G.B. Simpson.
   Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 2014, 61, 389–398

2. Ultrastructure and molecular phylogeny of Stephanopogon minuta: An enigmatic microeukaryote from marine interstitial environments Naoji Yubuki, Brian S. Leander. European Journal of Protistology 44 (2008) 241–253

3. Supporting figure adapted from: Kingdoms and Domains
   An Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth
   2009, Pages 117-230
   Kingdoms and Domains
   Chapter Two - KINGDOM PROTOCTISTA
   LynnMargulisUniversity of Massachusetts at Amherst Michael JChapman Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA.

Figure Pr-24A. The four species of Stephanopogon (stephano = Gk.crown; pogon = plug) colpoda drawn from work of John Corliss, 1979; Stephanopogon mesnili (based on a drawing by Andre Lwoff, c.1922), Stephanopogon apogon work of A. Borror, c.1965 and Stephanopogon mobilensis based on Jones and Owen’s studies, c. 1974. See Margulis and Chapman, 2010 for details.

Conchostoma longissimum, a rare denizen of the oxidized surface sands found in the intertidal benthos of marine estuary Accabonac Harbor. At first I was struck by the movement and habit of the ciliate as being very similar to that of Helicostoma oblongum which I have identified in the same biotope previously. It thrusts back and forth longitudinally rubbing against debris and spins along its long axis in one place and when it swims rapidly.

The ciliate measures 400 um in length ( the species reaches 800 um in length so this is a small one!) and is vermiform and rounded at both ends. The ciliation is complete and dense with longitudinal rows. The oral apparatus is in the anterior 1/3 of the organism and is elongate beginning at the apex where there is a shallow linear ciliated groove or frontal suture leading to a small vestibular cavity at the base of which is a small cytostome. Beneath the pellicle are numerous yellow refractile apparent mucocysts. The macronucleus is difficult to visualize due to pigmentation and opacity of the cell body but it appears to be ribbon-like (see first two GIFs). There is a terminal contractile vacuole and another in the posterior quarter of the body.

I did some Googling and happened upon an illustration of Conchostoma longissimum on page 81 in OPHELIA, 6: 1-182 (July 1969). Tom Fenchel. The Ecology of Marine Microbenthos IV. Structure and Function of the Benthic Ecossytem, Its Chemical and Physical Factors and the Microfauna Communities With Special Referrence to the Ciliated Protozoa. This was in FIG. 36. The most important herbivorous ciliates in the surface layers of sublittoral sands on page 81. Fenchel states regarding the surface oxidized layer of littoral sands: "The two gigantic ciliates, Pseudoprorodon arenicola and Conchostoma Iongissimum, have both specialized on dinoflagellates". Not surprising since the sample is loaded with dinoflagellates!

Then I checked Phillip G. Carey-Marine Interstitial Ciliates and sure enough it is listed there too description on page 105 and illustration 365 on page 287! Mystery solved. Apparently, Carey also reproted this species in the UK: Philip G. Carey and Maeda Masachika; Horizontal distribution of psammophilic ciliates in fine sediments of the Chichester Harbour area. J.Natural History 19:555-574, 1985

From Carey: Genus Conchostoma Faure-Fremiet 1963. A single species genus, Conchostoma is large and vermiform with little somatic specialization. A small seashell-like or ear-like vestibular cavity is present on the ventral side. This starts as a thin tube and terminates in a small cytostome. Kinetioes on the left side of the vestiibular cavity play little part in the formation of this depression , but kineties on the right fall progressively into this orifice. Both the right and left kinetal rows meet at a distinctive frontal suture. The vestibular cavity itself appears to be of some length despite the small ventral opening.

"Conchostoma longissimum Faure-Fremet 1963 . Vermiform and distinctive, this species attains a length of 800 um. The body is cylindrical and non-contractile. The one distinctive feature is the small vestibular cavityand associated frontal suture in the antero-ventral region. There also seems to be buccal ciliature present, lying adjacent to the long vestibular cavity. A number of contractile vacuoles lie on the lateral edges of the body. The single macronucleus appears very long. The posterior region may appear flattened after seawater ice extraction".

Conchostoma longissiumum is of uncertain taxonomy. Borror 1973 in Marine flora and fauna of the northeastern United States. ciliophora Protozoa writes: Order Trichostomatida Family Coelosomididiae Corliss 1961. "Conchostoma longissimum Faure-Fremiet 1963 is a species of uncertain taxonomic position in this order, but it may belong to this family".

Imaged in Nomarski DIC on Olympus BH2 using SPlan 20x and 40x objectives plus variable phone cropping on Samsung Galaxy S9+.

Collotheca species, possibly C. ornata, attached to the Elodea from fresh water Town Pond. Collotheca belongs to the rotifer class Monogononta, rotifers with only one ovary. These rotifers are sessile; they are either attached to each other forming a spherical colony, or attached individually to the substrate. Each rotifer secretes a gelatinous tube into which it withdraws when disturbed. Phase contrast Zeiss Photomicroscope III using Neofluar PH2 160.40 with Optovar set at x1.6 plus variable phone cropping. At one point, a little Menoidium decided to tempt fate and tease the rotifer by poking its infundibulum.

The absence of setae inserting between the lobes points to Collotheca ornata (thanks @shanesmicroscope ) in contrast to the similar species C. coronetta which has setae on the surfaces between the lobes (see illustration from Shiel and Plewka below).
https://www.plingfactory.de/Science/Atlas/KennkartenTiere/Rotifers/01RotEng/source/Collotheca%20ornata%20cornuta.html

Collotheca Harring, 1913
Class Rotatoria: Order Paedotrochida: Family Collothecidae
Synonym Floscularia Ehrenberg, 1832

Corona very large, circular, lobed, or pointed. The margins of the corona are furnished with long, very fine setae. Setae not arranged in whorls. The digestive system is very characteristic. The mastax has incudate trophi. Mostly sessile forms, the Collothecans are usually found in clear, gelatinous tubes. In a clear gelatinous tube. Foot terminated by a long, nonretractile peduncle, ending in an adhesive disc. Mostly sessile. Five species are free-swimming and may be found in lake plankton.

Parablepharisma species with mixed features of Parablepharisma pellitum (Kahl,1932) Jankowski, 2007 and P. granulata Campello-Nunes etal 2020 from the intertidal benthos of marine estuary Accabonac Harbor imaged in Normaski DIC using Olympus BH2S under SPlan 40x objective plus variable phone cropping on Samsung Galaxy S9+. It measures 120 um. There is an anterior mass of granular inclusions as seen in P. granulata which has a similar body shape to P. pellitum but there are several macronulear nodules as seen only in P. pellitum. The body shape is similar for both. I feel this is P. pellitum with a previously undescribed inclusion aggregate perhaps unique to the Accabonac population. Both P. granulata and P. bacteriophora have been reported to feature this anterior and sometimes posterior aggregate of refractile inclusions (1).

Parablepharismea is a class of free-living marine and brackish anaerobic ciliates [1,2] that form a major clade of obligate anaerobes within the SAL group (Spirotrichea, Armophorea, and Litostomatea), together with the classes Muranotrichea and Armorphorea. Parablepharismea are medium to large, elongated ciliates with navicular outline and holotrichous somatic ciliature composed of dikinetids without postciliodesmata.[2][1] Their oral ciliature is composed of bipartite paroral membrane and adoral zone of membranelles. They host a thick coat of prokaryotic ectosymbionts and cytoplasmic endosymbionts. They are found in micro-oxic marine to brackish habitats (2). The genus currently contains 6 species (1).

"Genus Parablepharisma Jankowski 2007 Type Species. Parablepharisma pellitum (Kahl,1932) Jankowski, 2007 Species Included. Parablepharisma pellitum (Kahl,1932) Jankowski, 2007; P. collare (Kahl, 1932) Jankowski, 2007; P. bacteriophora (Villeneuve-Brachon, 1940) Jankowski, 2007; P. kahli (Tucolesco, 1962) Jankowski, 2007; P. brasiliensis sp. nov.; P. granulata sp. nov. Emended Diagnosis. Sapropelic, medium-sized ciliates (100–300 um). Micronuclei usually located close to macronuclear nodules, which varies in number from one to 12. Some species may have caudal cilia and terminal vacuole. Cortex covered by ectosymbiotic bacteria, ordered in a longitudinal or transverse arrangement. Peristome occupying about half of the body length. Paroral membrane subdivided into two sections. The anterior section, longer and thinner, formed by a single row of kinetosomes. The posterior one, shorter and thicker, diplostichomonad, i.e. formed by two ciliary rows separated by an ectoplasmic ridge" (1).

Fenchel studied the diet of the type species P. pellitum which " feeds mostly on rhodobacteria but also on other bacteria, cyanophyceans and diatoms. Twentyone specimens of this species - which only occurs in reduced sediments with rich growth of sulphur bacteria - were investigated. The relative number of findings of various food items is shown on Fig. 3. Here the purple sulphur bacteria are underrepresented since they are always more numerous in the food vacuoles than any of the other items. The cyanophyceans were all uni-
cellular forms and the diatoms all smaller than 20 um" (3). As Fenchel mentions, this Parablepharisma was found in sediment with rich growth of sulfur bacteria which I often see in my samples.

1. Parablepharisma (Ciliophora) is not a Heterotrich: A Phylogenetic and Morphological Study with the Proposal of New Taxa. Pedro H. Campello-Nunes, Noemi M. Fernandes, Franziska Szokoli,Sergei I. Fokin, Valentina Serra, Letizia Modeo, Giulio Petroni, Carlos A.G. Soares,Thiago da S. Paiva, and Inácio D. da Silva-Neto. Protist, Vol. 171, 125716, xx 2020
2. Genomics of New Ciliate Lineages Provides Insight into the Evolution of Obligate Anaerobiosis. Johana Rotterova´, Eric Salomaki, Tomas Panek, William Bourland, David Zihala, Petr Taborsky´,Virginia P. Edgcomb, Roxanne A. Beinart, Martin Kolısko, and Ivan Cepicka. 2020, Current Biology 30, 2037–2050
3. Tom Fenchel (1968): The ecology of marine microbenthos II. The food of marine benthic ciliates, Ophelia, 5:1, 73-121

Pertromus kahli Villeneuve-Brachon (1940) from the intertidal benthos of marine estuary Accabonac Harbor. This biotope is rich in different Peritromus species and perhaps also morphotypes of these species. I have found P. montanum, P. faurei -which is often confused with P.kahli, and other intermediate forms which I cannot yet classify.

The most abundant species in my material though appears to be P. kahli. Like most members of the genus, P. kahli is highly contractile, shriveling up into a ball with its dorsal surface on the outside, when disturbed. This particular sample from the harbor contained numerous P. kahli organisms including a pair in conjugation, a dividing individual with two adoral zone of membranelles, and a recent proter divider. In the absence of protargol staining, two morphologic characters enabled me to diagnose this as P. kahli. First, in P. kahli and in my material, the adoral zone reaches 50% or the cell length while in the similar appearing P. faurei, it reaches only the anterior third of the cell (1,2).

Second, using phase contrast at 400X magnification, I was able to easily discern the peculiar dorsal ornamentation structures. These were first seen and called cornettes by Villeneuve-Brachon (1940) in their population from the Mediterranean Sea, France whose population measured 135 um in length and 85 um in width with a 1.60 length–width ratio in vivo.

Borror (1963) examined a population of Peritromus from Alligator Harbor Florida in the Gulf of Mexico which he designated P. faurei sensu which measured 92 X 56 um with a 1.6 L/W ratio and found dorsal onamentations which he called “golf tee shaped papillae”. However his population had an AZM, that reached 50% of the cell length which is consistent with like P. kahli but not P. faurei, so he likely misidentified his material as P. faurei. Jin et al (2), in their recent study of P. kahli (with 50% AZM length) did not identify these structures and attributed this to their lack of ultratructural examination in their study. This is puzzling since I easily found the chalice like structures with phase contrast and Villeneuve-Brachon saw them in 1940.

 Rosati et al. 2004 (1) examined their population of P. kahli from Perros Guirec, Manche, France using scanning electron microscopy. Their population measured 116 um in length and 68 um in width with a 1.70 length–width ratio in vivo. Rosati, called the dorsal ornamentation “chalice-like structures". Indeed, in my 120 um long population, these are clearly visible and quite closely resemble the chalice like structures of Rosati, et al. They are thought to be a type of lepidosome. Rosati felt that their ‘chalice-like’ ornamentations correspond to those referred to with different names, ‘as golf-tee like papillae’ (Borror 1963) or ‘comettes’ (Villeneuve-Brachon 1940). The ultrastructural analysis, here performed for the first time, evidenced their peculiar, well-defined shape, and the crystal-like organization of the material of which they are made. Considering that contraction is induced by external stimuli, and that only the dorsal surface is exposed in contracted P. kahli, the presence of those external structures may have an impact on predator-prey interaction, thus providing a defensive function (1).

"Peritromus kahli was first isolated by Villeneuve-Brachon (1940) from French coastal waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and the living morphological characters were described in brief. Although P. kahli has been repeatedly reported and reinvestigated in faunal or ecological investigations, important taxonomic information was missing (Borror, 1963; Carey, 1992). Sometimes, P. kahli was regarded as a synonym of P. faurei (for example, Song and Wilbert, 1997). The first detailed taxonomic information for P. kahli based on modern methods, including ultrastructural and SSU rDNA sequence data (AJ537427), was provided by Rosati et al. (2004). Morphologically, P. kahli differs from P. faurei in the ciliary pattern, i.e., 17–28 bipolar kineties, 6–22 postoral kineties, 63–94 adoral membranelles in P. kahli vs. 15–18 bipolar kineties, 5–8 postoral kineties, and 48–51 adoral membranelles in P. faurei (Song and Wilbert, 1997). In addition, the SSU rDNA sequences of these two species differ from each other by more than 40 nucleotides, supporting the validity of P. kahli and P. faurei as separate species" (2).

"General morphology (Table 1 and Fig. 1-3). Peritromus kahli is dorso-ventrally flattened with a dorsal irregular hump surrounded by a sort of flat rim. It is oval in shape, both ends are rounded. In vivo sizes: 116 (80-150) X 68.3 (44-92) um (Fig. 1). The entire, flattened ventral surface is covered by 29 (25-33) densely ciliated kineties, very close to each other. The buccal apparatus is approx. 10 um wide for its whole length. It extends from the upper third of the right side of the ventral surface, follows the rounded anterior end and continues along the left border. At 1/2 of the body length, the peristome curves conspicuously down the right side towards the cytostome. The membranelles at the cytostomal level are closer to each other and a short paroral is barely visible on the right side. The nuclear apparatus consists of two spherical macronuclei, 13.8 (8-18) km in diam., and of two small micronuclei, 1-2 pm in diam. (Fig. 3)" (1).

"External chalice-like structures (Fig. 6-8). The dorsal surface appears generally covered by a layer of randomly dispersed, rod-shaped elements (0.5 pm long and 0.1-0.2 pm in diam.) whose long axis is oriented in parallel with the cell surface. Peculiar structures, more or less closely packed, lie upon this layer. They appear as I .5-pm high, quadrangular ‘chalices’ (Ch). The edges of their square base (side - 1 pm) are slightly curved upwards. The stem is 0.5 pm wide and elegantly enlarges
up to form the 1.5 p,m-wide cup. The cup edges are somewhat thicker at their corners (Fig. 6). The ultrastructural analysis confirms that they are completely external to the cell (Fig. 7, 8). They are made of a fine, regularly arranged material forming 60 nm-sided triangular elements. Twenty-nanometer dense spots occupy the element vertices. This crystal-like material forms the 0.25 pm-thick ‘wall’ of both the cupped upper region and the stem. The internal lumen appears empty (Fig. 6, 7). The same material makes up the rod-shaped elements upon which the chalice-like structures sit. The material forming both kinds of structures may be secreted by the organism through the cortical invaginations present all over the dorsal surface (Fig. 7)" (1).

1. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Describe Protists: a Morphological, Ultrastructural, and Molecular Study on Peritromus kahli Villeneuve-Brachon, 1940 (Ciliophora, Heterotrichea). GIOVANNA ROSATI, LETIZIA MODEO, MICHELE MELAI, GIULIO PETRONI and FRANC0 VERNI J. EUKARYOT. MICROBIOL., VOL. 51, NO. 1, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2004

2. Taxonomy and SSU rDNA-Based Phylogeny of Two Heterotrich Ciliates (Ciliophora, Heterotrichea) Collected From Subtropical Wetlands of China, Including the Description of a New Species, Linostomella pseudovorticella n. sp. Didi Jin, Xuetong Zhao, Tingting Ye, Jie Huang, Alan Warren, Saleh A. Al-Farraj,
   and Xiangrui Chen Frontiers in Microbiology | http://www.frontiersin.org September 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 719360

Peritromus montanus Kahl, 1928

Members of the markedly contractile and negatively thigmotactic genus Peritromus are extremely common among psammophilic ciliates which I find in benthic samples from my local estuaries. The species herein, with individuals measuring from 75-100 um, has extensive warty ornamentation of the characteristic dorsal hump. This extreme ornamentation is the morphologic hallmark of Peritromus montanus Kahl, 1928. I show here two different individals from the same sample with varying degrees of wartiness of the dorsal hump ornamentation.

"Ciliates of the genus Peritromus Stein 1862 are widespread in marine habitats; they have been reported in Africa, America, Asia, and Europe (Borror 1963; Bullington 1940; Dragesco 1965; Faure-Fremiet 1924; Kahl 1932; Kirby 1934; Ozaki and Yagiu 1941; Song and Wilbert 1997; Villeneuve-Brachon 1940). Only one fresh-water species, namely P. hydrarum has been reported (Chardez 1983)" (1).

"The genus Peritromus is characterized by the strongly dorsoventrally flattened body and the ciliary pattern on dorsal and ventral sides being obviously differentiated (Song and Wilbert, 1997). Although 16 nominal species of Peritromus have been reported, detailed morphological information and molecular data are available for only two, i.e., Peritromus faurei Kahl, 1932 and Peritromus kahli Villeneuve-Brachon, 1940 (Song and Wilbert, 1997; Rosati et al., 2004; Miao et al., 2009). It has been hypothesized that Peritromidae (Peritromus) is the ancestral taxon of Heterotrichea (Chi et al., 2021), although this finding is inconsistent with most other molecular phylogenetic trees (Yan et al., 2015; Fernandes et al., 2016; Chen et al., 2017)"(2).

The following descriptions and the pictorial key are adapted from Philip G. Carey's Marine Interstitial Ciliates: an Illustrated Guide.

Family Peritromidae Stein, 1867 Genus Peritromus Stein, 1862 Ovoid or spherical in shape, the genus is characterized by the size and extent of the buccal membranelles which may run from mid-way on the left side, around the anterior, to terminate mid-way down the right side. The body is dorsoventrally flattened with the upper dorsal surface distinctly domed. There may be extensive outgrowths and ornamentations from this region. Somatic ciliation is uniform; some species have spines distributed at intervals around the body. All interstitial species are highly contractile.

Peritromus montanus Kahl, 1928 (Fig. 627) Ovoid, 50-100 11m in length, with the buccal ciliatu re commencing in the left anterior and running around to the right anterior of the body. This species is characterized by the very large dorsal ornamentation with its many raised warts and spines. The protuberance reaches its greatest development in this species. There arc no spines amongst the somatic ciliature. There are two ovoid macronuclei.

1. A Multidisciplinary Approach to Describe Protists: a Morphological, Ultrastructural, and Molecular Study on Peritromus kahli Villeneuve-Brachon, 1940 (Ciliophora, Heterotrichea). GIOVANNA ROSATI, LETIZIA MODEO, MICHELE MELAI, GIULIO PETRONI and FRANC0 VERNI J. EUKARYOT. MICROBIOL., VOL. 51, NO. 1, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2004

2. Taxonomy and SSU rDNA-Based Phylogeny of Two Heterotrich Ciliates (Ciliophora, Heterotrichea) Collected From Subtropical Wetlands of China, Including the Description of a New Species, Linostomella pseudovorticella n. sp. Didi Jin, Xuetong Zhao, Tingting Ye, Jie Huang, Alan Warren, Saleh A. Al-Farraj,
   and Xiangrui Chen Frontiers in Microbiology | http://www.frontiersin.org September 2021 | Volume 12 | Article 719360

• 1st image with live specimen, in subsequent images with preserved specimen
• missing antennae and some head setae, but enough present to verify Culex territans (character: setae 5-C, 6-C single or double)

Water sample (freshwater) was taken on 11/21/2022 using a turkey baster.
Images:

1. GIF showing a two lobed corona.
2. Shows a small colony of two individuals.
3. Shows the base of the larger tube, which is clear.
4. Shows a close up view of the debris that has accumulated near the top of smaller tube.
5. Shows the antennae of the smaller animal.
6. Shows the corona of the smaller animal.
7. Shows a close up of antennae of the smaller animal.
8. Shows the corona of the larger animal.
9. Shows the corona and antennae of the larger animal.

Mag. 400x.
Elongate, ovoid test. Transparent test composed of cemented, flat, mineral grains. 4-lobed aperture. Reviewing ID options at Microworld of Amoeboid Organisms (https://arcella.nl/netzelia-wailesi/), Netzelia seems certain for the genus; species might arguably be identified as either N. gramen, N. oviformis, or N. wailesi. To my novice eye, this elongate critter most resembles N. Wailesi. (BTW: looks like it had an ascospore for lunch!)

• A water sample was taken on 10/21/2022, from the shore of one of the impoundments, using a 10µ dip net to enrich for microbes. Air temp. 65°F.

Mag. 400x
I think this is Raphidocystis pallida, because of the similarity of these 4 specimens to images here https://arcella.nl/raphidocystis-pallida/. The stacking of scales against the base of some of the axopods gives them the look of tall pine trees (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrohelid). For an interesting video that records the movement of the central ectoplasm, see https://youtu.be/VfGL6os0Icw.

• A water sample was taken on 10/21/2022, from the shore of one of the impoundments, using a 10µ dip net to enrich for microbes. Air temp. 65°F.

Mag. 100x (1), 400x (2)
As seen here https://arcella.nl/netzelia-corona/.

• A water sample was taken on 10/21/2022, from the shore of one of the impoundments, using a 10µ dip net to enrich for microbes. Air temp. 65°F.