Stentor 1 swimming with Paramecia and Euplotes, note the holdfast fibrils on the stalk end, food and contractile vacuoles and the adoral membranelle.



A Marine Stentor: Using a stereo-microscope to search through sediment from underneath rocks in the Coobowie Marine Reserve I observed a long thin active protist. Pippeted up and placed on a slide it turned out to be a Stentor. Further observations using the BX53 DIC microscope narrowed the field to S. polymorphus or S. katashimai. Based on observations and images the following appear to lead to S. katashimai or a new species.

  • No zoochlorellae in the cytoplasm
  • Macronuclei are spherical

That said there are other distinct morphologies that point to a new species including: