I stopped by Heron’s Head Park late Sunday and took a few panoramic photo sets. While there I collected three vials of samples from locations on the edge of the wetlands. The most entertaining sample was from a location just up the shore a bit from where Wayne collected earlier samples.

The sample site shown in an earlier kite aerial photograph.

Since I was there principally for the purpose of shooting panoramas it seems only proper that I show you a panorama of the sample site. Refering to the image below, I collected the sample from the pool immediately adjacent to the tripod’s feet. the sample included some algae and a bit of debris as well.

The next day I got a chance to take a look through the microscope and found this sample quite active with a variety of organisms. There were Nematodes and I believe I see Wayne’s suspected Beggiatoa

In the debris of this sample lives a fair population of elegant. gliding ciliates with long necks. Could this be a Litonotus cygnus or a Dileptus or even a Lacrymarie olor? Take a look at this unpolished movie and see what you think.

The creatures may be a bit hard to track with the microscope but they a certainly not hard to find. They are also relatively large. Most of the movie was shot at 3x on the camera and 200x on the microscope which should yield a field of view of around xxx.

Over at Micscroscopy-UK, Rosemarie Arburape had this to say:

Dileptus and Litonotus can be confused with each other and with Lacrymaria olor. The position of the mouth is distinctive: Lacrymaria’s is at the end of its very elastic neck, Litonotus‘ is on the side of its neck, and Dileptus‘ is where the neck and body join. Motion of the neck differs, too: Lacrymaria‘s is whipped out and around, noticeably changing length, Litonotus‘ is usually carried at a slight angle to the body, and Dileptus‘ sweeps side to side in arcs exceeding 135°. Litonotus is much smaller than the other two. Once you’ve seen all three, confusion vanishes.

Well I haven’t seen them all so I am still confused. I have seen a nice movie of Lacrymarie olor hunting and the neck is making a peckinglike motion which is less smooth than my specimen. Rosemarie also noted “If Dileptus looks frantic, waving its neck, Litonotus swims elegantly and with poise.”

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