Anterior infraciliature

Description:

Anterior apical view of the haptorid ciliate, Acropisthium mutabile (Perty, 1852). The cell body is ovoid to cylindrical. The posterior tapers to a short point. The anterior end forms a blunt snout with an apical cytostome. Short trichites support the cytopharynx. There is a girdle of longer cilia just posterior to the bare anterior snout. There is a girdle of longer cilia just posterior to the bare anterior snout. The closely packed kinetosomes of this circumoral ciliary girdle are angled obliquely to the long axis (seen well here). Radiating fibrils can be seen between the circumoral kineties and the cytostome. There are 22 widely spaced uniform longitudinal somatic kineties. The anterior halves of three dorsal kineties are made up of clavate (short club-shaped) cilia forming a dorsal brush (seen well in this view at 12 o'clock). Stained by the silver carbonate technic (see Foissner, W. Europ. J. Protistol.27, 313-330; 1991). Collected from a freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho. Brightfield.