portrait

Description:

Dysteria (dist-ear-ee-a) is a hypostome ciliate. Like other hypostomes it favours particular food such as algae. The cell on the right has eaten blue-green (bacterial) algae and red (purple) sulphur bacteria. They can pick up their food using a jaw system made of stout rods capped with teeth. The tip of one of these rods can be seen inside the cell at about 1 o clock from the centre of the cell. Cilia in this genus are restricted to a broad band running along the lateral margins of the cell. There is also a collection of cilia that form a podite - or attachment structure. Differential interference contrast.