A quiet ciliate

A small ciliate in the center of this view is still except for the movement of its cilia.

Just as we begin to wonder if it will ever move, it turns and quickly darts away.

Commentary by Prof. Yuji Tsukii, Hosei University
This organism is certainly a kind of ciliate with a contractile vacuole, but it is difficult to identify. The location of the cytostome (mouth) at the top suggests that it belongs to the class Prostematea. The Prostematea class includes Coleps and Prorodon. However this ciliate is not covered with a hard armor-like plate, which Coleps has, and it is much smaller than Prorodon. The cylindrical structure of the cytostome is not clear in this video, so we cannot say what kind of ciliate it is.

Sampling Date : 27 May 2009

Sampling Site : Hirose River A  Google Map