This page is a series of links to the various flagellate protozoa that I have observed and sketched over the years. I observe protozoa similar to the way birdwatchers enjoy observing birds.
The following Protozoa have thumbnail images and text observations: clicking them will take you to the scanned JPG images of the 4X6" card sketches.
The list is by no means complete. An excellent reference if you want information and images on more species is "How To Know the Protozoa" by Jahn.
These are the flagellates in alphabetical order:
Click on the thumbnail image or organism name to see full size image drawings.
Amphidinium scissum:
Per Kudo: This species found along sandy beaches
8/14/1984 Seen in Long Beach Wa. sand.
4/1986 Seen in Long Beach Wa. sand.
Anthophysis vegetans:
The brown twisty stalks are often cause of brown slime in samples.
Stalks remain after organism die off.
For method of food capture see
Cephalothamnium cyclopium.
2/87 old waterfall sample colonized glass jar sides. 1/93 Klineline sample. 5/97 Vancouver Lake.
Astasia species:
5/1997 in Salmon Creek aquarium sample.
Seen during Protozoology class at Portland State University.
Astasia species #2:
Like
Astasia acus but this one was much larger.
10/88 in Klineline
Oscillatoria algae bloom. Other Astasia species seen including possible
Astasia klebsi
Cephalothamnium cyclopium:
Colonial with efficient food collection: Click to see card details.
This is in subphylum Phytomastigophora even though it does not contain chloroplasts.
Often seen attached to body of Cyclops hence the species name.
10/1985 Ridgefield slough on water plants. 4/86 Marsh sample.
Ceratium hirundinella:
Ceratium hirundinella type Gracile.
Fresh water dinoflagellate with plated shell containing many perforations. One front cone (epicone) and two or three hypocones.
Yellow green chromatophores.
8/1985 in the Klineline scumpond.
Cercobodo species:
Small flagellate, like Cercomonas but second flagellum is free.
3/1989 Bend lake infusion.
Cercomonas crassicauda:
Posterior end is actively ameboid giving the appearance that organism is "walking" on its pseudopodia.
Trailing flagella seems to attach to substrate as do the trailing pseudopods.
5/84 ditch water, 3/86 Bend lake infusion experiment, 1/93 Klineline ice melted, 5/97 PSU soil experiment.
Chilomonas paramecium:
Small very motile flagellate. Common inputrid plant infusions. Granules are starch and can be stained with iodine to demonstrate.
4/84, 10/85, 10/86 Stagnant samples from waterfall, puddle, and Klineline.
Chlamydomonas species:
Common green flagellate with clear cellulose wall.
On binary fission cellulose wall expands as mitosis x2 gives four daughter cells. Cell wall then ruptures releasing four individual cells. Click for card image. 5/84 mossy puddle. 5/89 Bend lake infusion.
Chlorogonium species:
Fusiform cell with central nucleus, stigma, and green chloroplasts.
Common in pond water especially marshes.
Hyalogonium species looks identical except does not contain chloroplasts.
2/85 Suavies marsh. 2/87 in marsh algae. 4/88 in ditch algae bloom.
Colacium vesiculatum:
Free swimming form like a
Euglena but then attaches by secreting a stalk.
Stalks formed on other stalks give a dichotomous branching.
2/15/1985 on
Cyclops from Sauvie marsh
Cyathomonas truncata:
No chloroplasts. Reservoir pocket is distinct, surrounded by ring of granules. Ring is easy to see, but individual granules require oil immersion 1000X.
2/87 old sample from marsh, 4/88 old sample form ditch algae bloom.
Desmarella moniliformis:
This sample of standing rain water 9/89 contained motile colonies of 3 to 20 members. Best fit for ID is
D. moniliformis subspecies
crescentalis.
Dinobryon sertularia:
Two flagella per cell, unequal in length. On division one daughter cell forms new test on rim of test of other cell.
The colonies I found had been been disrupted from substrate attachment.
Feeding pattern is interesting: The longer flagella slams into the inside of the test, then slowly unfurls to repeat this process.
9/1984 Dry creek puddles @ Long Beach WA, 10/84 Delta Park Heron pond, 2/85 Suavies marsh, 10/88 Klineline oscilatoria clump, 4/92 Klineline algae sample.
Entosiphon sulcatum:
Three pharyngeal rods fused as a central extensible tube or cytopharynx. Jahn lists the function of this structure as unknown. In this sample I observed active searching for food and ingestion with the tube extending and retracting.
One flagellate too large to ingest stuck to tube for a few seconds and then virtually exploded, leaving bits of material that the Entosiphon actively pursued and ingested.
Trailing flagella is twice the length of the anterior flagella.
8/1985 Cat tail pond debris after 3 days incubation. 3/87 Marsh sample after 2 weeks incubation.
Euglena cyclopicola:
Plastic cylindrical body attaches by anterior end to
Cyclops, also
Daphnia, and
Cypris. Also free swimming.
The cell ends look slightly more pointed than in Jahn, but the unique habitat and nuclei make this ID reasonable. Not listed in Kudo.
5/81 Attached to
Cyclops in ditch water. 2/85 Attached to
Cyclops in Suavies marsh.
Euglena pisciformis:
Description fits E pisciformis except size should be 20 to 35 microns rather than the 40 u seen.
Euglena spirogyra:
Large Euglena, sluggish. Cell bends but doesn't contract. Other distinctive features on
card scan.
5/1984 Delta Park slough after one day incubation. 9/84 Puddle of drying creek. 3/97 Vancouver Lake marsh but size was smaller at 100 microns.
Euglena tripteris:
Twisted cell lengthwise. Two distinct rod shaped paramylum bodies. Only slightly plastic.
5/1984 Delta Park slough. 2/85 Suavie marsh. 4/86 Klineline pond. 5/97 Vancouver Lake backwaters.
Gonium pectorale:
Square looking colony of 16 cells in flat plane.
Sometimes seen with 8 cells, (pre-division?)
Scanned card shows direction of motion and rotation.
9/1984 puddle near stream @ LomgBeach WA. Seen multiple other times in ponds and marshes.
Gonyostomum semen:
Sluggish "animals" among decaying pond vegetation.
Bright grass green.
10/1988 Klineline
Oscillatoria.
Gymnodium species:
Marine sample at Long Beach Washington. There are many species of this dinoflaggelate in marine and fresh water environments.
8/84 Long Beach WA. 2/86 Long Beach sand sample.
Haematococcus pluvialis green form:
Fresh water ponds. Can form red granules hence the genus name.
Also lives on snow drifts in the Alps and Rocky Mountains, giving a pink to red color to the snow.
6/1984. 9/89 Standing rain water in wading pool, this was a bloom profusion. 7/1989 Pink snow drift near Three Finger Jack in Oregon Cascade range: See the next card:
Haematococcus pluvialis red stage:
Can form red granules hence the genus name.
Lives on snow drifts giving a pink to red color to the snow.
7/1989 Pink snow drift near Three Finger Jack in Oregon Cascade range
Hoplonympha natator:
Lives in Termite gut. It is symbiotic with the termite by breaking down cellulose the termite has ingested.
Observed 8/85 and 1/89 in fluid from inside dissected termite intestine.
See also
Pseudotrypanosoma species, and
Trichonympha species.
Mallomonas ploessii:
Contains two green rod-like chromatophores. Test made of scales and spines. Contractile vacoule at posterior end.
1/1986 Klineline lake. 4/86 and 2/87 in Marsh samples.
Mallomonas species are common in marsh environments such as flood waters in grassy plains.
Mallomonas species:
Many species for this genus. Kudo only shows one species and Jahn shows two. Neither reference shows the species shown here.
It would be nice to find a reference that would help with more of the species.
2/1985 Suavie Island marsh sample.
Mallomonas species:
Many species for this genus. Kudo only shows one species and Jahn shows two. Neither reference shows the species shown here. Five anterior spines. One anterior flagella.
It would be nice to find a reference that would help with more of the species.
2/1985 Suavie Island marsh sample.
Monas socialis:
Semi colonial hence the species name. Small active flagella generates currents. Cells detach easily to swim free with a jerky motion.
4/1984 stagnant sample from waterfall. 3/85 old sample from ditch with duckweed plants. 4/88 Pasture ditch algae bloom.
Monosiga robusta:
Solitary small flagellate with delicate clear collar.
3/1985 in ditch with duckweed.
Notoselenus sinuatus:
Resembles
Petalomonas species but has second trailing flagellum.
This is difficult to observe and required oil immersion 1000x magnification to see.
8/85 cat tail debris collected by Kris.
Pandorina morum:
Active colonial flagellate found on mud surface at edge of a puddle as a bloom. Follows light source avoiding very bright light.
5/85 green bloom at puddle edge. 10/89 old jar from Klineline. 2/92 cultured puddle sample. 2/95 DEQ pond water sample. 5/97 Salmon Creek flood water.
Peranema trichophorum:
Carnivorous flagellate. Very plastic when stationary. Trailing flagella not visible as it is attached to pellicle. Forward flagella straight forward with front third motile.
Old culture inoculated with bakers yeast gave rise to active ingestion.
Common in a variety of fresh water samples.
Phacotus lenticularis:
Circular in front view. Lenticular in profile. Green cell does not fill the light grey shell (test). The test is made of 2 parts that fit like a clam shell.
9/1984 found in stagnant water from Delta Park slough.
Phacus pleuronectes:
Phacus species differ from Euglena with rigid cells and very small numerous dicoid chloroplasts.
7/84 Delta Park slough. 7/86 Klineline waterfall. 10/88 Klineline.
Phacus torta:
Phacus species differ from Euglena with rigid cells and very small numerous dicoid chloroplasts.
2/1985 Suavies marsh. 4/92 Ocean Park WA stream. 5/97 Vancouver Lake.
Phacus torta var. tortuosa:
Phacus species differ from
Euglena with rigid cells and very small numerous dicoid chloroplasts.
This species has more twist in the cell hence the subspecies var. name.
Polykrikos schwartzi:
Marine sample. Image from
Protozoology: Grell, Karl 1973
I did not draw this organism when I saw it because I could not find it in Kudo or Jahn. It is in Kudo but that diagram did not look like the organism I found.
For each nuclei there are two grooves with their corresponding transverse flagella. This is a colonial dinoflagellate !
8/1984 Long Beach Washington marine sample.
Pseudotrypanosoma species:
Lives in Termite gut. It is symbiotic with the termite by breaking down cellulose the termite has ingested.
Observed 8/85 and 1/89 in fluid from inside dissected termite intestine.
See also
Hoplonympha natator, and
Trichonympha species.
Stylopyxis species:
Biflagellate with delicate lorica attached to substrate.
The Delta Park sample was strewn with what appeared to be empty lorica of this species. This suggests there was a bloom and die off of this species.
5/1984 Delta Park slough.
Synura uvella:
During blooms of this organism the water will smell like cucumber.
Colony spherical with 2 to 50 cells arranged radially. Cells covered with short bristles.
Observed in many samples including puddles, ponds, marshes, lakes, and melted incubated lake ice samples from 1984 to 1997.
Trachelomonas armata:
Similar to Trachelomonas horrida except T. armata has spines on rear side of lorica and at collar. T. horrida has spines all around lorica but not on collar.
10/1987 Stream with orange scum.
Trachelomonas horrida:
Lorica is yellow brown due to ferric hydroxide and manganese compounds.
Organism inside lorica is indistinguishable from
Euglena Seen multiple times from 1984 to 1997 in puddles, ponds, streams, drainage ditches, and lakes.
Trachelomonas species probable urceolata:
Note the posterior spine and anterior collar shaped like a kings crown.
4/1986 Long Beach marsh sample.
Trachelomonas volvocina:
Yellow brown lorica. Very long flagella, single. Common in midsummer farmyard ponds.
Organism inside lorica is indistinguishable from
Euglena. 10/1984 Delta Park Heron Lake. 2/85 Suavie Island marsh. 10/85 Stream in cow manure. 10/87 Klineline pond. 4/88 ditch algae bloom.
Trepomonas agilis:
Unusual motility: Uses twisted cell shape as a "propellor" (inclined plane). The two long flagella are on the sides of the cell and whip around the cell in synchronized jerks about 1 to 2 per second. This rotates the organism in place and then the propellor shape of the cell pushes the organism through the water.
It also has a rapid swim motion that was too fast to study. It slows down in response to nutrient rich areas of the environment. Found in stagnant water and amphibian intestines. My sample was a old stagnant jar originally collected at the Klineline waterfall.
Trichonympha species:
Symbiont in termite intestines. Extremely active. So many where present that they overlapped each other. At first glance it looks like a ciliate due to many flagella.
See also
Hoplonympha natator, and
Pseudotrypanosoma species.
8/1985 from flying termite. 1/89 termite gut.
Volvox spermatosphaera:
No connecting structures between cells seen in this
Volvox species.
In this sample about 1 of 4 colonies contained a parasitic peritrich, possibly
Rhabdostyla or
Pyxidium species.
4/1986 Klineline pond
Volvox bloom.
This page is a series of links to the various ciliate protozoa that I have observed and sketched over the years. My original cards were made in the late 60's after obtaining a copy of "How To Know the Protozoa" by Jahn.
Those cards are lost long ago but in the 80s I obtained a clinical quality microscope and started this nature hobby again. I observe protozoa similar to the way birdwatchers enjoy observing birds. If you have any questions you can contact me by email at the
Email us link at the top of the page
