More ditch dwellers...

I feel somewhat like the coachman flogging his dead horse since the images I post seldom portray the details I encounter through the eyepiece. I'm going to put up this last set of pictures and wait until my camera adapter is set properly before posting more images. Unless of course something terribly interesting unfolds beneath my objective.

 I had been looking at these circles for some time, unable to figure out what they were. Well, yesterday after staring at one for a while I noticed some movement on the periphery and...Ahah! Pseudopods...and I had myself another amoeba. This one looks like a member of the Genus Arcella, perhaps Arcella hemisphaerica. It was neat to finally figure out this was an amoeba.

I found this specimen with the amoeba completely out of it's test (shell). It was alive and was moving, eventually raising the test and slowly starting to move under it. I moved on to other explorations before it's move was complete but my hope is that it found its way back into the house.

Another amoeba, no idea what this type is other than it seems to be one of the "naked" versions.

And might this be even another one?

A different one with a better view of the rays. Or is it a different type?

This diatom frustule had a somewhat different shape than most of the other ones I had seen... usually pennate so I snapped a picture.

 I had been following gastrotrichs around for a while trying valiantly to get a picture, to no avail. These critter are fast and elusive, preferring to slow down only when covered by detritus. Anyway, I did manage this shot as a souvenir of my nonproductive pursuit.

An unidentified ciliate.

Another.

A flagellate.

Another?

Alga?