Testate Amoeba - Arcella - Two Species

Here are two species of Testate Amoeba, both are Arcella, but one is the common orange color, arcella discoides, while the second has a shell made up of small sand particles. He has a very unique opening in the shell, shaped like a 4 leaf clover.

Here is the video.

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I really enjoy your posts, Mitch.

The Amoeba are fascinating, and have more features than I expected. They are quite pretty in their own way.

Thanks Bas, for an animal with only a single cell, this species has accomplished a lot.

The orange ones build those shells from silica that they make, silica. When they are ready to divide, they build a second mirror shell, then split the jelly and off they go on their own adventure, never to meet again. What I want to know is, with only a single cell, how does it know to do that? Instinct? Then, in a single cell, where is instinct stored? It's only a single cell. No nervous system, no heart, gills, no eyes or brain. And yet they can build a house, find food, travel on vacation and make others of his kind.

do you stack these?

No, while they don't move fast, they do move. Stacking wouldn't work. If you watched the video, that's in real time, that's how fast they move.

Would've thought you could get a bit more detail out of a few stacked frames? Especially as like you say the movement is minimal - guess it depends on the setup but I find if you just scroll through the focus and burst you can get a pretty good set of frames for aligning at stacking. Nice shots nonetheless!

Some things you can stack, and I have done a few things, although I have never gotten stacking to work good for me. One of the problems is, I am using a T1i mounted on a microscope, and it has to run off EOS utility so I can see what the sensor sees in live view. As far as I know, there is no burst in EOS Utility and the T1i isn't fast enough even when used by hand. LOL

Can't you just use the rear viewfinder and a remote release? That said I have no experience or details on the T1i about its burst or live view capabilites. I use a 7d with microscope mount and just use the rear screen + trigger. I should think I have a bit of an fps advantage though

The way I am set up, I would have to stand on a stepladder to see the rear screen, and the remote does not work in EOS Utility. Also, I am using flash for the stills.

Have you posted any shots here? Kind of lonely with only one microscope guy posting.

Haha yeah, I kneel on the lab bench to see the screen. I've not posted any micro stuff here, I've not taken any in a while as I've been out of the University lab for a year. I'm looking forward to getting back into it though in my new department (hopefully!).

Here are a few that I just have online.

Bright field

Nice. I love the effect of SEM, nothing like it.

I'm using an old Nikon Fluophot. A nice scope in it's day, but so few of them were ever made, that it's impossible to find any of the optional stuff around anymore. I am limited to brightfield and I can get a home made darkfield stop to work on 10x, but nothing higher. My condenser doesn't even have a filter tray.

I've been looking for a phase condenser since I got the scope and so far, the only one I know about is owned by a guy in Valencia Spain, and he isn't selling.

wouldn't have had a clue what the Testate Amoeba were, Ctranter's images are more familiar. All very interesting.

I had never heard of a testate amoeba until I got a microscope. They were one of the first life forms I saw when I started this hobby.