Infraciliature
Right lateral view of the haptorid ciliate, Acropisthium mutabile (Perty, 1852). The cell body is ovoid to cylindrical. The posterior tapers to a short point. The fixation and staining process swells the cells. The anterior end forms a blunt snout with an apical cytostome. Short trichites support the cytopharynx (not seen here). There is a girdle of longer cilia just posterior to the bare anterior snout. There are 22 widely spaced uniform longitudinal somatic kineties. This individual is in the middle stage of division. The equatorial band of closely spaced kintosomes will form the circumoral ciliary girdle of the posterior daughter cell (opisthe). The anterior halves of three dorsal kineties are made up of clavate (short club-shaped) cilia forming a dorsal brush (seen well in this view). The dorsal brush of the opisthe is seen well here. Collected from freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho August 2004. This specimen is stained by a silver carbonate technique (see Foissner, W.Europ. J. Protistol.27,313-330;1991). Brightfield optics. This image was taken by William Bourland. He now uses a Zeiss Axioskop 2 with Spot Insight and Spot Flex CCD cameras (Diagnostic Instruments). Image copyright: William Bourland, image used under license to MBL (micro*scope).
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Acropisthium mutabile
From the collection
Freshwater and Terrestrial Microbes of Idaho (USA) and Elsewhere
| Description of Acropisthium mutabile: Medium-sized Haptorid ciliate, from 50-100 micrometres long. Body shape variable, from slenderly cylindrical to ovoid, or beet-shaped, with a pointed posterior. Oral aperture is apical, within a wide, bluntly conical snout. The base of the snout is encircled by a ring of long cilia. Body uniformly ciliated, with longitudinal kineties. Ciliation increased in density near the circumoral dikinetids. Clavate kineties forming dorsal brosse. Macronucleus spherical, contractile vacuole in the posterior. Freshwater, eats small algae. |
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