| Aspelta circinator, dorsoventral view, two light refracting bodies are visible in the rostrum (arrowheads). (1) |
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| Aspelta circinator, ventral view, focus plane on the ciliary field (1). |
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| Aspelta circinator, lateral view; specimen from (2) |
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| Aspelta circinator, forcipate trophi of a macerated specimen. (2) |
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| Aspelta circinator; because of the toes are corved inwards this species might be confused with Dicranophorus secretus at the first glance. Specimen from (3) |
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| Aspelta circinator, specimen from (4); in contact with the rotiferophagous fungus Zoophagus sp.. The head/ corona of Aspelta is retracted (see images below). Reaction to the contact with the fungus??? |
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| Aspelta circinator, the same specimen has engulfed a Lepadella rotifer, a species which is caught by Zoophagus insidians very often. Head of Aspelta retracted. So it is posiible that this Aspelta-specimen has either caught the Lepadella specimen that had been caught by Zoophagus first, or Aspelta swallowed the Lepadella specimen first and then swallowed the fungus afterwards. (4) |
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| Aspelta circinator, same specimen, compressed by coverslide. From this image the question arises: how can these relative small forcipate trophi (arrow) of Aspelta manage to engulf this relative big Lepadella-prey (shape marked by arrowheads)?. (4) |
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| Aspelta circinator, same specimen; detail of the contact of the fungus and the rotifer(s). (4) |
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| Aspelta circinator, trophi (4) |
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| Aspelta circinator, upper image: another specimen with an engulfed Lepadella- rotifer. Lower image: same specimen, compressed; lorica of Lepadella (also visible are the foot with toes and the malleate trophi) on the left side and the forcipate trophi of Aspelta on the right (6) |
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| Location: Wahner Heide near Cologne (1); Plabennec, Brittany, France; lake (3); |
| Habitat: Sphagnum pond (1,2); between alge / detritus (3) |
| Date: 2012 (1); 12.08.2019 (3) |
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