Karnan,
It is a diplopsaloid type dino. To get to the genus/species (Diplopsalis, Diplopsolapsis, etc) you need to examine the thecal plates on the bottom half of the cell.
Dear mam, thank you very much. Can I say that the green colour is the indication of high chlorophyll in its food content? Or what the green colour indicates?
Karnan, this is quite possible. Although without actually seeing the sample with the dinoflagellates and available prey items it is hard to be certain.
Were these samples fixed with Lugol's? If not, you can always look at them under epifluorescence w/ blue excitation to see if they fluoresce red. I have cultured Diplopsalis many times and they have never retained a green color to them, in fact, they tend to have a pale pinkish white color to them in nature as well as in culture. Do you have any images of them from the front or side of the cells? It is hard to determine from the top or bottom view only.
Dear Cammie,
The first panel of image was took before preservation. The remaining 3 microscopic images (60X) taken after preserved in Formalin. I did not tried with epifluorescence microscopy. Thanks.
I didn't see the larger images earlier and they do look like Diplopsalis lenticula but I have never heard of them having green coloration, especially since they feed with a pallium. Did you observe them feeding? I wonder if it is possible for them to have endosymbionts? We have Noctiluca scintillans in the GOM that are obligate heterotrophs; however, the ones in the Arabian Sea have green endosymbionts living in their vacuoles...I'm wondering if there are other species of dinoflagellates in which this occurs?
I analysed the above sample to know the diversity. I did not observed their feeding. This genus only contained this colour. It could be endosymbionts or chromatophores.
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