#parabasalids

[merismo]

Hey look, it’s the stuff I study! 

[merismo]

One of the labs I work at got a new microscope with a built in camera. It’s a big change from my bare-bones microscope at home so it took some getting used to. Totally worth it for the results! 

Here are some DIC (differential interference contrast) images of Pseudotrichonympha and Holomastigotoides. This lineage of protists has lived in symbiosis with wood-eating termites for 150 million years, breaking down and digesting wood for their hosts. Should these protists die out the termites will starve to death. 

Many of those little hairs on them are actually symbiotic bacteria! 

(Props to the Gile lab for providing the microscope!)

[malicious--intent]

How I feel while trying to pronounce the types of Protists in my biology class.