Microscopic Life in Moss

Some video clips, slowed down to a quarter speed ....



... as they are constantly rushing about. This time I was able to use the above stage lighting which gives somewhat clearer views of the activity. My first thought on identification was Ostracada but now I am not so sure, Thay may be Cillates. PS. Just been identified by Izmi Gigavista from Fort Hays State University as being a cillate known as Colpoda.

Moldy Breaf

Basic microscopes only have a lamp under the specimen being viewed. Sometimes better results are obtained with illumination from just above the specimen, or even a mixture of both. This photo shows the microscope and above that is a Schott lighting unit. The light travels down the flexible tubes so it can be aimed just where I want it.



Here are some views of a piece of mold from an old slice of bread:







PS. The flag seen just above the Schott unit is the flag of the county where I live - Lincolnshire.

Pond Life - Little and Large

First the little. Some Ostracods I found near the edge of my raised pond. They are large enough to be seen as tiny brown dots moving around in the water. These crustaceans live in a hard shell which is in two parts. In the second clip, top creature, you might just see the thin opening when it moves about. This shell closes when it senses danger. The video was made under a 3.5X objective lens on my microscope.



For the large - what could be more beautiful than ..



.... a water lily.

Little and Large

First the microscopic object. A Tardigrade (water bear) I found in the moisture taken from a clump of moss, about 150 microns long (150 thousandths of a millimetre)



Second, a beasty quite a few (thousand) time larger:



A field cricket which ended up on my kitchen windowsill.

Life in Moss

I picked up a bit of moss kindly thrown on my path by a bird. It was placed in a small petri dish and soaked with boiled tap water for a few hours:



Then the moss was removed and squeezed to drip some of the moisture in another dish. Now a small amount of that liquid was picked up in a pipette and a drop or two placed on a microscope slide. With the naked eye only a few minute dots could be seen in the water. After adjusting the lighting the sample was viewed to see what microscopic life could be found and photographs taken. Here are a few:

A nematode:


Probably a rotifer:


An as yet unidentified creature:


I must try this again with some moss from a different place.

Microscope Camera

I decided to purchase a Swift EC5R camera which is designed to replace the eyepiece on a microscope:

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The software which comes with the camera will run on Windows or Mac OS and allows the user to take photos or video clips. I picked a small clump of pond weed from the edge of my raised pond to put under the microscope.



For scale the strands of weed are just under 1mm wide.

Blooming Beautiful

Just a quick post to keep the blog active. I have been trying out a photo app on my newly acquired DooGee Note 58 mobile phone and found a water lily which was partly open:



This DooGee may not be as all singing and all dancing as a Samsung Galazy or iPhone 15 but does remarkably well for the princely sum of £99.98. I have had a DooGee tablet for a year and found it to be really reliable, again at the fantastic price of £128. If the weather is kind on Sunday I hope to use the phone to take some video at the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway.