PHYLUM CILIATA

1.a. Find a culture of Dileptus and examine it in a thick wet mount. Carefully describe the behavior of the organism.

1.b. Label the neck, cytostome, and pellicle of the outline drawing of Dileptus.

1.c. Add toxicysts, cilia, contractile vacuoles to the illustration above.

2. Examine living Didinium and describe the pattern of cilia on the cell.

3.a. Balantidium coli is a parasite of the human colon and causes balantidial dysentery. Find the demonstration slide of Balantidium and compare its cytostome with that of Didinium?

3.b. Sketch the macronucleus and micronucleus.

4.a. Examine living Paramecium cells which have been mixed with homogenized milk stained with Congo Red. Only the milk fat droplets take up the stain. Follow the stained droplets that have been ingested by the Paramecium. How does the color change? [Congo Red is red in a basic and blue in an acidic medium.]

4.b. While looking for color changes in the food vacuoles, observe the action of the contractile vacuoles and cilia at high magnification. Sketch a contractile vacuole when fully distended and contracted.

4.c. Now carefully scan the cell surface. Are all cilia that cover a Paramecium uniform in size?

4.d. Look for examples of cell division. How does fission differ from conjugation in the ciliates?

4.e. Add a drop of 1% acetic acid to the edge of the coverslip and watch a cell's response to the acetic acid. What happened?

4.f Find the oral groove, cytostome, oral membranes, macronucleus, and micronucleus and add them to the drawing below.

5.a. Mount living Vorticella on a slide and find the sessile cells. Tap the microscope stage until the cells are disturbed. Describe the behavior of the cells as they respond to the tapping?

5.b. How are cilia distributed of the Vorticella?

5.c. Do you see any motile forms?

6.a. Examine living Stentor in a wet mount. In what way genus similar to Vorticella?

6.b. In what important ways are they different? 6.c. In what kind of aquatic habitat would you expect to find both Vorticella and Stentor?

7.a. How does Euplotes differ from Paramecium and Stentor in the form of its cell and its ciliation?

7.b. Carefully describe the behavior of Euplotes.

8. Carefully examine the demonstration slide of rumen ciliates. Describe the ciliation of these cells.

9.a. Find the demonstration slide of Ephelota. Although this organism looks like Vorticella, it feeds in a very different way. How?

9.b. How is dispersal accomplished in the suctorians?