Do you know what kind of organism is this?

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Maria Valladolid

Any idea of what kind of phytoplankton exactly? I have found it attached to a beetle that lives in a mountain river.

Maria

Hanno Krieger

I´m no specialist, but I found the following file, I suppose you are right with ephippia. The URL is

https://www.reflex.at/~biolab/Unterseiten/Diss/Daphnia_longispina.htm

I think so, it could be ephippia but, from what organism? Those from Cladocera usually are bigger, and they don't have this kind of filaments on the border. I have ask to a specialist in microcrustacea and he doesn't recognize it.

Thank you for your answer

Julian D. Reynolds

I don't think this is a cladoceran ephippium - it is symmetrical, whereas ephippia are detached parts of the dorsal carapace, containing one to several (often 2) thick-walled eggs, easily visible. Unlike ephippia this specimen has an apparent attachment filament, suggesting a functional relationship with the hydraenid beetle.

I don't have an alternate identification. What other small organisms may be attached to the stream substrate, or to other organisms? Could it be an attached protist, like Stentor or Vorticella (Ciliophora)? Or, a longer shot, what about an early-stage hydroptilid larva? Good luck with it! Julian

Dear Julian,

thank you for your answer. I'm thinking in protists, but the structure is quite rigid and flat, it is more like a fan. And about Hydroptilid early-stage larvae, it is too small and the cases have always two valves. Another option that I'm considering is any kind of unicelular algae, I'm still searching.

Best wishes and thank again

Dear colleagues,

I have asked to a Spanish expert and she has confirmed me that it is a Suctoria epibiont (Protozoa: Ciliophora).

Best wishes and thanks for your interest

Now we are trying to identify it more accuracely, when we had new results I'll show you.

Best wishes

It's nice to communicate that we have resolved the mistery. The specimen is a suctoria epibiont protozoan, a new species that we have described in:

GREGORIO FERNÁNDEZ-LEBORANS, MARÍA VALLADOLID, MERCEDES ARAUZO,

ANDRÉS MILLÁN, REGINA GABILONDO, MANUELA GALLARDO, LUIS JIMÉNEZ & MIREYA RAMÍREZ-BALLESTEROS. 2017. Epibionts on Hydraena species (Coleoptera: Hydraenidae) from high mountain rivers of Pyrenees (Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park), with the description of a new species. Zootaxa, 4317 (1): 79-94. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4317.1.3.