Paracondylostoma setigerum setigerum

From my notes on the YouTube video, from 2013:

This genus was discovered and named by W. Foissner in 1980. By 1998, when it was found again, it had still only been seen in its original type location, which Foissner and Kreutz describe as a “brownwater pond at the grassy margin of a 100 m broad Sphagnum stripe with dwarfed pines.” This environment is quite similar to the one in which I found this specimen: a brown, marshy pool at the edge of the Mer Bleue sphagnum bog, a patch of protected subarctic habitat within Ottawa’s “green belt.”

Since 1998, the organism seems to have turned up more frequently. Foissner and Kreutz identify a subspecies of P. setigerum with symbiotic algae (zoochlorellae), P. setigerum chlorelligerum. This specimen seems to be colorless, at this phase of its life. It will be interesting to see if algae-bearing specimens turn up at this location during the summer. The ciliate lives in a mucous lorica, much like that of Cyrtolophosis mucicola (which was found in the same sample) and Stichotricha aculeata (collected at the same site last week). I have found other mucous-dwellers at this location, lately, including one unidentified hypotrich that might be Uroleptus willii.

Body Length 65 µm

From Mer Bleue conservation area, Ottawa. Collected in mid May, 2013.