Colpidium
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Colpidium sp. (right) is captured by a suction infusor (left) (microscope image) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Colpidium | ||||||||||||
| Stein , 1860 |
The genus Colpidium belongs to the ciliate animals . They are unicellular organisms with a size of about 0.03 to 0.15 mm, which are also known as kidney animals because of their shape . They live worldwide in heavily polluted fresh water such as streams, rivers, lakes and year-round pools, but they also occur in sewage treatment plants. They serve as indicators in the saprobic system with which the degree of pollution of a water body can be determined.
features
Among the ciliates, the genus Colpidium belongs to the rather small to medium-sized organisms. The characteristic oval shape of these single-celled cells led to the name "oval animal" in the past. Colpidium is one of the holotrich ciliate animals, ie their body is almost completely occupied by cilia . Most species have caudalcilia that are about twice as long as the rest of the eyelashes. This genus is characterized by a rotation and inclination of the end of the body above the mouth area, which gives the body a kidney-shaped appearance when viewed under the microscope. This rotation is also visible through the curvature of the eyelash lines, some of which in this area are incorrectly S-shaped.
Way of life
All species in the genus are free-living freshwater ciliates. They are mainly found in the growth of heavily polluted waters, so they belong to the microbenthos . There they graze on the bacterial lawn.
Although there can be large seasonal fluctuations in population density for individual species, no permanent stages are formed.
Indicator of water pollution
The degree of water pollution is indicated by the range of species of living beings. Colpidium species are indicators of the highest degree of pollution in water. Microorganisms play an essential role in these polysa-sample waters. Plants do not exist in such contaminated water zones, and fish cannot exist here either, as there is hardly any oxygen. The macrofauna is only represented by a few mud tube worms and mosquito larvae . The society of organisms that can often be found here is called Colpidietum colpodae . Characteristic are the eyelash animals Colpidium colpoda , Dexiostoma campylum (formerly called Colpidium campylum ), Glaucoma scintillans , Paramecium trichium , Acineria incurvata and Vorticella microstoma .
The high content of easily degradable organic substances in the water leads to high bacterial densities. It formed Sphaerotilus - cyanobacteria - beggiatoa - and Leptomitus calcareous grasslands. The Colpidium species feed on these bacteria. They are therefore to be found between rotting algae and macrophytes, in the muddy bank zone of heavily polluted rivers and on the surface of digested sludge or in the pelagic areas of heavily polluted waters. This species composition is also predominant for the activated sludge of the sewage treatment plants with permanent lack of oxygen due to the occurrence of putrefaction processes.
Research history
In 1860 Friedrich von Stein raised the infusoria species Paramaecium colpoda ( Ehrenberg , 1831, previously described as Paramaecia kolpoda von Losana, 1929) to the genus Colpidium with the initially only species Colpidium colpoda .
A major change occurred when the relationship to Turaniella was established and the genus Colpidium was therefore placed in the order Peniculia . Soon, however, both genera were spun off there and reintegrated into the order Hymenostomatida as the Turanellidae family .
The species Colpidium campylum (Stokes, 1886) was placed in a new genus Dexiostoma by AW Jankowski in 1967 as the only species Dexiostoma campylum . In 1989 the species Colpidium truncatum (Stokes, 1885) was placed in the new genus Paracolpidium by Wilhelm Foissner and Bruno Ganner as the only species Paracolpidium truncatum .
Systematics
After the revision of the genus Colpidium by Ganner and Foissner in 1989, the species remain
- Colpidium colpoda (Losana, 1829)
- Colpidium kleini Foissner, 1969
- Colpidium singulare Vuxanovici, 1961
- Colpidium acuminatum Vuxanovici, 1962
literature
- Wilhelm Foissner, Hubert Schiffmann: Taxonomy and phylogeny of the genus Colpidium (Ciliophora, Tetrahymenidae) and new description of Colpidium truncatum Stokes, 1885. In: Naturkundliches Jahrbuch der Stadt Linz. Volume 24, Linz 1978, pp. 21-40 ( PDF (8.2 MB) on ZOBODAT ).
- Thomas Posch, Hartmut Arndt: Uptake of sub-micrometre- and micrometre-sized detrital particles by bacterivorous and omnivorous ciliates. Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Volume 10, March 1996, pp. 45-53.
- Janusz Fyda, Gabrielle Kennaway, Katarzyna Adamus, Alan Warren: Ultrastuctural Events in the Predator-induced Defense Response of Colpidium kleini (Ciliophora: Hymenostomatia) . Acta Protozoologica, Vol. 45, pp. 461–464, 2006 online version ( Memento of July 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English, PDF; 92 kB).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Friedrich Stein: About the division of the holotric infusion animals and some newer genera and species of this order . Meeting reports of the Royal Bohemian Society of Science, pp. 56–62, 1860
- ↑ F. Iftode, G. Fryd-Versavel and DH Lynn: New details of the oral structures of Colpidium and Turaniella and transfer of the genus Colpidium to the Turaniellidae Didier, 1971 (Tetrahymenina, Hymenostomatida) . Protistologica, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 463-474, Center national de la recherche scientifique, Paris, 1984
- ^ AW Jankowski: The boundaries and composition of the genera Tetrahymena and Colpidium . Zool. Zh. Vol. 46, pp. 17-23, 1967
- ↑ Bruno Ganner and Wilhelm Foissner: Taxonomy and ecology of some ciliates (Protozoa, Ciliophora) of the saprobic system. III. Revision of the genera Colpidium and Dexiostoma, and establishment of a new genus, Paracolpidium nov. gen. Hydrobiologia, Volume 182, Number 3, pp. 181-218, Verlag Springer Netherlands, September 1989