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It Came from the Pond

It Came from the Pond

Do-It-Yourself Protistology

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It Came from the Pond
It Came from the Pond
Do-It-Yourself Protistology
  • Arcella | Protistology | Testate amoebae

    Some notes on the fine structure of Arcella shells (and an answer to a question nobody asked)

    ByBruce Taylor September 2, 2025September 3, 2025

    Amoebae in the family Arcellidae make their shells from a self-produced organic substance, without incorporating any other building materials (diatoms, hard scales, bits of quartz etc.). Although described in older sources as “chitinous,” and in newer ones as “keratin-like”, the precise composition of this substance is still unknown. The stuff is not laid down as…

    Read More Some notes on the fine structure of Arcella shells (and an answer to a question nobody asked)Continue

  • Amoebae | Netzelia corona | Protist Homes | Testate amoebae

    More about amoeba teeth

    ByBruce Taylor May 31, 2025August 19, 2025

    A couple of blog posts ago, I discussed some recent research suggesting that some testate amoebae use their shells for predation. Yesterday, I was looking at samples from Mer Bleue Bog, and came across some more specimens of the handsome amoeba I mentioned in that post, Netzelia corona. I took some time to look more…

    Read More More about amoeba teethContinue

  • Arcella | Arcella prismatica | Chisasibi | Mer Bleue | Protistology | Testate amoebae

    A new species of Arcella

    ByBruce Taylor January 22, 2025August 19, 2025

    A shelled amoeba I discovered nearly eleven years ago finally has a name! Meet Arcella prismatica Taylor, Strueder-Kypke & Siemensma, 2025. So far, this pretty morphotype has only been found at two sites, a brown-water lake in Ottawa’s Mer Bleue Bog, and a roadside mire in the Cree Nation of Chisasibi, on the Quebec coast…

    Read More A new species of ArcellaContinue

  • Netzelia | Netzelia corona | Protist Homes | Protistology | Testate amoebae

    A new way of looking at the shells of arcellinid amoebae

    ByBruce Taylor December 16, 2024December 16, 2024

    Netzelia corona is a testate amoeba with “teeth” around the aperture of its shell. It also has some impressive spines jutting out from its posterior, which have obvious advantages as a defensive apparatus. But it’s the teeth that have always puzzled me. They’re very neatly made, featuring uniform lobes of organic cement from which tiny,…

    Read More A new way of looking at the shells of arcellinid amoebaeContinue

  • Lophomonas blattarum | Parasites | Parasitology | Protistology | Protozoa

    An old question, revisited: Do cockroach symbionts really infect people?

    ByBruce Taylor November 27, 2024August 19, 2025

    Two wrongs don’t make a right. Fifty wrongs, however, can make a scientific consensus. All it takes is a large enough number of researchers drawing similar conclusions from a big enough pile of bad data. A confirmation cycle sets in, and tentative suggestions begin to solidify into confident assertions. A weird idea that might be…

    Read More An old question, revisited: Do cockroach symbionts really infect people?Continue

  • Difflugia | Taxonomy | Testate amoebae

    A 200-year nomenclatural trainwreck

    ByBruce Taylor November 21, 2024December 4, 2024

    On a recent trip to the eastern coast of James Bay, I collected large numbers of testate amoebae that, by morphological criteria, belong to various species in the genus Difflugia. I’ve spent some time making portraits of them, measuring them, and dropping live ones in little vials of guanidinium thiocyanate in the hope of eventually…

    Read More A 200-year nomenclatural trainwreckContinue

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  1. Jeffrey Silverman on More about amoeba teethAugust 18, 2025

    That's amazing. Can't be just chance. But to borrow a line from an old gag: "how does it know?".

  2. Carl Seaquist on More about amoeba teethMay 31, 2025

    Very cool!

  3. Bruce Taylor on Out of Africa? A Ciliate Turns Up on the Wrong Side of the AtlanticMarch 23, 2025

    Congrats on a cool find, Kenneth!

  4. Kenneth Kneidel on Out of Africa? A Ciliate Turns Up on the Wrong Side of the AtlanticMarch 17, 2025

    Let it be known that I may have uncovered a population of L. rex in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, see…

  5. Harry Mueller on A new way of looking at the shells of arcellinid amoebaeDecember 18, 2024

    An interesting and very plausible proposition. Once I get my mind around the fact that these little one celled creatures…

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