Observation: Week #2

Week two of observations brought about some interesting things. In addition to seeing more of the same organisms, I was able to observe one new organism in the M.A.(MicroAquarium).

This new organism happened to be the only one, and one of its kind (that I could tell) in the M.A.. While scanning the M.A. along the bottom, I noticed a worm like creature that would periodically stick its head out of the sediment that had collected at the bottom. This organism turned out to be a Midge (Pond II, poster). The Midge i observed turns out to be the larvae of a non-biting fly known as a midge fly (BIOLOGY AND CONTROL OF NON-BITING AQUATIC MIDGES, http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Urban/midges.htm). Its long body was hidden mostly by the sediment at the bottom of the M.A., but every few seconds the Midge would protrude from the sediment to feed on some of the particles composing the sediment. It's head had two antennae and a mouth that appeared to be about the width of the head. The size of the Midge was much lager than any other micro-organism, nearly twice the size of any observed Cyclops.

Not too far from the Midge I observed in the sediment located along the bottom of the M.A., were two Cyclops. These were the only Cyclops that I could locate in the M.A., and they seemed to be following each other. The two Cyclops appeared to be either male (lack of egg sacks) or juvenile (lack of egg sacks/they had not developed yet).

In between observations of the M.A., a food pellet was added. All around this food pellet was a type of rotifer known as a Euchlanis (http://msnucleus.org/watersheds/mission/holoplankton.html). There were too many of these Rotifer's to count as they could be found moving about the whole entire M.A.. These Rotifer's have the appearance of a horseshoe crab, and use two appendages located at the rear of its body to move around (http://msnucleus.org/watersheds/mission/holoplankton.html). In addition to these Rotifers, I observed another type in the plant material that I had seen the previous week known as a Rotifer Philodina.(http://msnucleus.org/watersheds/mission/holoplankton.html). Only locating two of these Rotifer's in the M.A., the swirling motion created by it's wheel like organ caught my eye.

I was able to observe four more Lacrymaria this week. This time, two of them were stationary amongst the plant material, while the other two were moving about freely in the water on either side of the plant material. The two that I saw in the plant material were moving their neck and mouth around at a much higher rate of speed than the two that were moving around in the water.