These beautiful, stalked heliozoans are encased in a lattice of silica
and are attached to algae.
A sketch of Acanthocystis. The green, algae-filled center was surrounded
by a distinct collar of clear cytoplasm from which the axopods appeared
to radiate. On the day in which these creatures bloomed, they were in great
abundance in the water sample.
These beautiful, stalked heliozoans are encased in a lattice of silica
and are attached to algae.
A sketch of Arcella gibbosa (?). The test is a pale golden brown or topaz
color. They are extremely abundant in Madog River water, more common than
the plainer Arcella hemisphaerica.
This ornate Arcellid, with its very large, pale golden brown test, is rare
in the Madog River culture.
This one appears to be a shelled sarcodine called
Centropyxis aculeata. It has a large, spiny, dark-brown test, and is only
moderately common in the Madog River water.
A sketch of a small Tubuline, possibly Metachaos. This is a lively, fast-moving
and rapidly changing little amoeba with several pseudopods. They are not
terribly abundant in Madog River water samples.
This extremely tiny Tubuline is similar to the one pictured above, but
maintains a more equant shape. Also, it maintains a large envelope of clear
protoplasm.
A sketch of a small Tubuline, possibly Saccamoeba. This small amoeba creates
a clear bubble of cytoplasm at its "front" end and flows into it. These
are not terribly common in Madog River water, but we see more of these
than we do of the Metachaos type.
This is a large Tubuline with very grainy, pale blue-gray cytoplasm. Most
of the time it looks like Saccamoeba, above, but then it sends out long
pseudopods and forms several branches to engulf particles in the water.
This is a beautiful amoeba that is easy to spot because of its unusual
color.
One day the slides were full of naked amoebae, including
these angular, spiky-looking ones.
This odd little sarcodine might be Multicilia lacustris.
The round things stuck to its skinny filopodia are particles of food, which
it ingests through its pseudopods.
This Difflugia has a pebbled test and a couple of lively, skinny pseudopods.
Its pseudopods swing around rapidly like tentacles.
This beautiful Sarcodine has a shingled shell with five long, curved spikes
emerging from it. They are abundant in Madog River. Its psuedopods are
extremely thin, and emerge from the narrow end of the "vase. "
This is an enormous shelled amoeba of uncertain affinity. The test is huge
and looks like a glob of soil. The pseudopods are thick and robust, looking
like an algal filament except for the flow of the cytoplasm. The cytoplasm
is a uniform pale green color with few obvious vacuoles or inclusions.
I did get one look at the underside of a dead one, and it had a flange
or collar around its opening.
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Critters of Guam