I have seen very few living Euglypha, and none ever eating. This little guy was really going at it, like a stray cat on a chicken leg. The quality is not the best, but I left it in more as a record of the fact than anything else.
The first half is with Phase Contrast, using a Nikon Fluophot scope and Phase condenser, the second half is Brightfield using the same condenser in BF with a slight offset to show an oblique lighting effect. There are small slices where I have accelerated the frame rate to show some of the internal organelles and food vacuoles as they progress.
Remember, this is a single celled animal, an amoeba. He builds a shell and lives his whole life in it. When conditions are good, he will divide and make another shell for his brother to move into. An exact reproduction of the shell. They have never changed the design, for millions of years. When the shell is ready, he will divide his body and half will move into the new shell, which is joined to the old one at the narrow end, by a salicilate glue he makes with his body. He will dissolve the glue, the shells will part and they are on their own.
http://youtu.be/SNFciw8GIvY
A Euglypha In Cell Division
In two years, I have only seen this one other time. That time I was not sure if it was alive or the amoeba had died in the attempt, cause I did not see anything inside. This time it is quite obvious that this animal is alive, and was in the process of transferring half of itself to the new shell.
I am not sure how long this process could or should take, but I did check on it for at least 25 minutes, and could not see much change. The light colored circle in each half is the nucleus of the cells, so he is near the end of cell division.
http://youtu.be/YsfmT6i4ahw
