slorimor's Favourites

I have my Bio 302L students at Northern Kentucky University to thank for this fun find. This amazing bacteria colony grew out of a water sample taken from the Lakeside Commons pond, directly behind the Campbell County Cooperative Extension offices. On 1/17, water and a little sediment was collected from the edge of the pond. On 1/19/2023 my microbiology students diluted a sample and spread plated it onto glycerol yeast-extract media, which is selective for gram-positives such as actinomycetes. This colony grew quietly on a 0.01 mL plate that had been forgotten in the fridge. Actinomycetes often have strange colony morphologies, so that's my guess on an ID for this. Neither I nor my colleagues have seen a colony like this before.

some sort of tiny creature, maybe sesame seed or rice grain sized mostly floating near the surface of the water in a swampy section along the wooded trail that has been filled with water since recent rains. the creature has two projections (breathing tubes? or maybe antennae?) poking out of one end (not sure if it's the head or rear end, though i'm leaning towards head) that touch the surface of the water. in the photos, i think it's sort of curled up like a cooked shrimp. mostly it would float like this, but occasionally it would swim around, maybe in the way that a mosquito larva might though maybe more purposefully. (it was so small, i didn't really get a good look at the movement though). there may have been 2 or more of these floating around in the water with mosquito larvae and other creatures.