#euglenoids

[balimaria]

Phacus, photographed 3/26/26 at 1000x total magnification. Another euglenoid that is immediately recognizable. Though the genus is very large, that leaf shape is a dead give away. I think I've only ever mixed them up with Monomorphina, and that's only because those guys are so small and never stop moving around. But really, once you get a good look at them, the difference is clear. Always nice when a euglenoid makes ID easy on me. Not all of them are like that...

[microbes-in-hats]

Lepocinclis helicoideus

Photo credit: Robert Berdan canadiannaturephotographer.com

[dougdimmadodo]

Euglena (Euglena spp.)

Family: Euglenoid Family (Euglenaceae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed

The members of the genus Euglena are microscopic, single-celled eukaryotes that can be found in large numbers in both marine and freshwater habitats worldwide. Exactly what they are, taxonomically speaking, has been the subject of extensive debate: like plants, their bodies contain chloroplasts filled with large amounts of the green pigment chlorophyll which allows them to absorb sunlight and carry out photosynthesis to sustain themselves, but like animals, they are capable of “eating” (when faced with low light levels that impair their ability to carry out photosynthesis they can secrete enzymes that break down dead organic matter in the water around them, allowing them to absorb nutrients from this matter through their cell membranes), moving (with a pair of tiny tail-like structures, known as flagella, allowing them to swim towards food and away from predators such as larger single-celled organisms and tiny animals such as rotifers and fish larvae) and rudimentary “seeing” (with a single redish-orange “eye spot” filtering sunlight onto a light-sensitive structure at the base of the flagella and thereby forming something comparable to a very basic eye, allowing Euglena species to distinguish between light and dark and move towards sunlight.) As such, most authorities now classify Euglena and its relatives as protists, a sort of “miscellaneous” category that includes all eukaryotic organisms that are not animals, plants or fungi. When faced with dry conditions or a lack of sunlight and food, Euglena species can encase themselves in a protective membrane and enter a dormant state until they encounter preferable conditions, and when conditions are ideal they reproduce through binary fission, a form of asexual reproduction in which a single-celled organism essentially makes a copy of its genetic material, separates these two copies at opposite ends of its body and then splits into two distinct but genetically identical individuals. When sunlight is intense and water is abundant, these organisms may reproduce so frequently that the water they live in begins to appear green (or, in the case of the species Euglena sanguinea which uniquely possesses a protective casing of the reddish substance astaxanthin around its chloroplasts to protect them from damage from intense UV radiation, red.)

(Note - on the individual pictured above, the orange mark near the top of the image is the eye spot. The flagella are tiny and transparent so are very hard to see through most microscopes, but they’re there - I promise!)

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Not an animal per say, but a poster I was given for Christmas had these little goopy guys on it and I wanted to learn more about them. I think they’re cool, and while they’re not easily visible protists are still wildlife!

Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/203631-Euglena

[adelicateculturecell]

Journey to the Microcosmos- Colorless Euglenoids: Structure and Function (and Food)

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

Astasia 400x, Dinematomonas 400x, Dinematomonas 400x, Astasia 400x, Astasia 400x, Dinematomonas 400x

[neat-deadandlive-things]

My love for algae just keeps growing.

These are all from one tiny sample of lake water.

[balimaria]

Exciting news for a niche audience... I will now be posting my microscope photographs to the wonderful world of tumblr. Flagellates!! Ciliates!! Roundworms and flatworms!! Copepods!! Diatoms and desmids!! Algae of every color, colonial or solitary!! Find it here under the tag #microscopy and nowhere else. Doodles sometimes included.

Identification done by me and the good folk of inaturalist (where I am balimaria as well). All photos are my own and any mistakes, ID or otherwise, are certainly my own as well.

Lepocinclis oxyuris var. helicoidea. Photographed 3/26/26 at 100x and 250x total magnification. Any member of the Euglenid class is a treat to come across, but this one especially so for its large size and slow movement, making it easy to photograph. Very lovely striations and long, rod-shaped paramylon grains, and of course that long tailpiece that is so often a feature of this genus.

[adelicateculturecell]

Journey to the Microcosmos- Colorless Euglenoids: Structure and Function (and Food) 

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

Heteronema 400x, Heteronema 400x, Heteronema spirale 400x, Heteronema 400x

[neat-deadandlive-things]

These little guys are photosynthetic euglenoids in the Genus Phacus.