Frontonia vernalis

Group: Other free-swimming ciliates · Colpoda, Litonotus, Frontonia, Loxophyllum, Dileptus, Loxodes and many more

What you see

Recorded on 28 May 2012. This loop is the whole 0:27 recording.

Points to check against your own sample:

  • A single cell with cilia, a mouth area and food vacuoles inside; no jaw, no gut.
  • Shape and the arrangement of cilia around the mouth are what specialists use: a long proboscis (Dileptus), a flat knife-like body (Litonotus), a small sphere that jumps (Halteria).

Full description and look-alikes: Other free-swimming ciliates.

Credit line

Video: Deuterostome, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

MP4 720×480 1.1 MB MP4 540×360 0.3 MB

More clips of this group

0:10Frontonia, dark field, 400×Other free-swimming ciliates 0:36Frontonia leucasOther free-swimming ciliates 0:19Frontonia ingesting a diatomOther free-swimming ciliates 0:25Frontonia atraOther free-swimming ciliates 0:18Colpoda in a hay infusionOther free-swimming ciliates 0:25Dileptus sp.Other free-swimming ciliates