May 10, 2025
Lacrymaria asperospora from today
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Germany
seen from Poland
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from Mexico
seen from Russia
seen from Netherlands
seen from China
seen from Singapore
seen from Russia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Netherlands
seen from Malaysia
seen from Netherlands
Lacrymaria asperospora from today
Lacrymaria olor
Photo credit: Charles B. Krebs
Microcosmic Dragon Lacrymaria Draco 50
Lacrymaria olor is a remarkable single-celled organism that lives in freshwater ponds. It has a long and flexible “neck” that can stretch up to 10 times the length of its tear-shaped body. It can also bend and twist its neck in different directions, even around obstacles, to hunt for its prey. Despite having no eyes, it seems to have a keen sense of where to find food, such as other ciliates, flagellates, and amoebae.
“The Lacrymaria's hunting style is incredibly successful, but it's build in part on chaos. Instead of lying in wait for food to come by, the Lacrymaria plays the odds. It zaps its neck out incredibly fast, sub-second movements to whip around and randomly sample the area around it for food. This strategy helps the Lacrymaria capture all sorts of prey.”
Journey to the Microcosmos- Lacrymaria: Vicious Long-Necked Predators
Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs
Lacrymaria olor 200x, Lacrymaria olor hunting a Halteria 200x, Lacrymaria olor 200x, Lacrymaria olor ripping a ciliate apart 200x, Lacrymaria olor 630x, Lacrymaria olor & Trachelomonas 200x
“Sure [Lacrymaria are] cilliates, but so are plenty of other organisms. Also, they get to be around 100 micrometeres long, and micronuclei, and some contractile vacuoles. Which again, is all very good, but none of those details make Lacrymaria particularly interesting. No, I mean, what we really want to know is what's going on with that neck!”
Journey to the Microcosmos- Lacrymaria: Vicious Long-Necked Predators
Images were originally captured by Jam’s Germs
“And that's why when you're looking down at your slides, you might see the damaged remains of the Lacrymaria's unfortunate victims before you see the hunter itself,,, and even if the prey is larger or faster than the Lacrymaria and it can't get the whole microbe, it can still tear off quite a sizable chunk and make a nice meal out of the piece. Of course, all that movement is... a lot. And it's not something the organism can be doing all the time.”
Journey to the Microcosmos- Lacrymaria: Vicious Long-Necked Predators
Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs
Lacrymaria olor 200x, Lacrymaria olor in its inactive stage 200x, Lacrymaria olor 630x, Lacrymaria olar 200x, Lacrymaria olor 200x, Lacrymaria olar 200x
“The lacrymaria's teardrop-shaped body extends off that neck-like thing that has a sort of "head" at the end of it. Obviously, this "head" and "neck" are not actual heads and necks in our bodily sense of the words. But the structures are distinct, and so the terms are convenient ones for us to use here. And what makes the Lacrymaria's neck so remarkable is just how long it can get.”
Journey to the Microcosmos- Lacrymaria: Vicious Long-Necked Predators
Images were originally captured by Jam’s Germs