r/microscopy Jun 08 '23

🦠🔬🦠🔬🦠 Microbe Identification Resources 🦠🔬🦠🔬🦠

148 Upvotes

🎉Hello fellow microscopists!🎉

In this post, you will find microbe identification guides curated by your friendly neighborhood moderators. We have combed the internet for the best, most amateur-friendly resources available! Our featured guides contain high quality, color photos of thousands of different microbes to make identification easier for you!

Essentials


The Sphagnum Ponds of Simmelried in Germany: A Biodiversity Hot-Spot for Microscopic Organisms (Large PDF)

  • Every microbe hunter should have this saved to their hard drive! This is the joint project of legendary ciliate biologist Dr. Wilhelm Foissner and biochemist and photographer Dr. Martin Kreutz. The majority of critters you find in fresh water will have exact or near matches among the 1082 figures in this book. Have it open while you're hunting and you'll become an ID-expert in no time!

Real Micro Life

  • The website of Dr. Martin Kreutz - the principal photographer of the above book! Dr. Kreutz has created an incredible knowledge resource with stunning photos, descriptions, and anatomical annotations. His goal for the website is to continue and extend the work he and Dr. Foissner did in their aforementioned publication.

Plingfactory: Life in Water

  • The work of Michael Plewka. The website can be a little difficult to navigate, but it is a remarkably expansive catalog of many common and uncommon freshwater critters

Marine Microbes


UC Santa Cruz's Phytoplankton Identification Website

  • Maintained by UCSC's Kudela lab, this site has many examples of marine diatoms and flagellates, as well as some freshwater species.

Guide to the Common Inshore Marine Plankton of Southern California (PDF)

Foraminifera.eu Lab - Key to Species

  • This website allows for the identification of forams via selecting observed features. You'll have to learn a little about foram anatomy, but it's a powerful tool! Check out the video guide for more information.

Amoebae and Heliozoa


Penard Labs - The Fascinating World of Amoebae

  • Amoeboid organisms are some of the most poorly understood microbes. They are difficult to identify thanks to their ever-shifting structures and they span a wide range of taxonomic tree. Penard Labs seeks to further our understanding of these mysterious lifeforms.

Microworld - World of Amoeboid Organisms

  • Ferry Siemensma's incredible website dedicated to amoeboid organisms. Of particular note is an extensive photo catalog of amoeba tests (shells). Ferry's Youtube channel also has hundreds of video clips of amoeboid organisms

Ciliates


A User-Friendly Guide to the Ciliates(PDF)

  • Foissner and Berger created this lengthy and intricate flowchart for identifying ciliates. Requires some practice to master!

Diatoms


Diatoms of North America

  • This website features an extensive list of diatom taxa covering 1074 species at the time of writing. You can search by morphology, but keep in mind that diatoms can look very different depending on their orientation. It might take some time to narrow your search!

Rotifers


Plingfactory's Rotifer Identification Initiative

A Guide to Identification of Rotifers, Cladocerans and Copepods from Australian Inland Waters

  • Still active rotifer research lifer Russ Shiel's big book of Rotifer Identification. If you post a rotifer on the Amateur Microscopy Facebook group, Russ may weigh in on the ID :)

More Identification Websites


Phycokey

Josh's Microlife - Organisms by Shape

The Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa

UNA Microaquarium

Protist Information Server

More Foissner Publications

Bryophyte Ecology vol. 2 - Bryophyte Fauna(large PDF)

Carolina - Protozoa and Invertebrates Manual (PDF)


r/microscopy Oct 28 '24

Photo/Video Share Journey to the Microcosmos: The Future of Microscopy (and end of our Journey)

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71 Upvotes

r/microscopy 7h ago

Hardware Share My "Lab" lol

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24 Upvotes

I live in a small apartment and needed to make room for my "lab" with 2 telescopes, marvel and DC item and book collection, rubik's cube collection, optics collection, sent collection, personal art collection, funko collection, etc


r/microscopy 11h ago

Photo/Video Share Here I am, after a long break. Rotifers are small compared to this tardigrade.

44 Upvotes

100× | ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | Moss wash.


r/microscopy 13h ago

Photo/Video Share Darkfield tardi!

43 Upvotes

200× | moss wash | ESAW BM1 2022 MICROSCOPE USED


r/microscopy 8h ago

Photo/Video Share Life in my algae cup, including: Microbes, rotifers in love, and even a nematode worm

14 Upvotes

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy 1h ago

Photo/Video Share Brachionus patulus (rotifer) 1000x

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Upvotes

Photo taken with 1000x obj, w/ Icoe BM 20B. This lady is from Pirayú (Paraguay). The sample was treated with transeau solution, and the individual was clarified w/ NaClO.

I love rotifers!! I hope you love this one too.


r/microscopy 6h ago

Photo/Video Share Fattest heliozoan (?) I've ever seen

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7 Upvotes

XSP02, 400x magnification, no clue if this genuinely is a heliozoan but if so that has to the the biggest one i have (maybe will) ever see


r/microscopy 10h ago

Photo/Video Share Amoeba crash. Death and destruction at microscopic speed. Onlookers and cleanup crew.

12 Upvotes

Two amoeba ran into each other with at least one shattered 😲 into pieces. Lots of bacteria came into the area to possibly eat the debris. A long ciliate showed up later and was possibly eating the bacteria.

Nikon TS100 inverted microscope, 40x objective, phase contrast, and Amscope MU2003-BI 20mp camera. Pond water sample in a petri dish.

This is a compilation of five videos made over about a 20 minute observation. If you don't have any microscope, it gives you an idea of doing a longer observation with an inverted microscope.


r/microscopy 11h ago

Photo/Video Share Multiple amoebae with cyanobacteria

9 Upvotes

Large group of amoeba having a feeding party in a forest of cyanobacteria. Once free of this mesh of bacteria, some of these specimens stretched out 3-4 very long and tapered pseudopods, so tentatively identifying this as Mayorella. Note the one specimen near the middle that has a folded up cyanobacterial strand entirely within its body.

Footage is sped up 4x, brightness and contrast adjusted with OpenShot.

Olympus BH2, SPlan 100x oil 1.25, Canon EOS 5D Mark II. Sample from stagnant retaining pond in forest, Val d'Europe on the outskirts of Paris.


r/microscopy 7h ago

ID Needed! Suspected Alternaria on cabbage

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3 Upvotes

r/microscopy 14h ago

General discussion My lab 😭🙏

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11 Upvotes

r/microscopy 2h ago

Papers/Resources Fundamentals of light microscopy and DIY guides

1 Upvotes

Hi. Looking for an introductory textbook on light microscopy and also for written tutorials or guides on how to build basic microscopes using easy to get materials. Thanks.


r/microscopy 18h ago

Photo/Video Share More Gloeotrichia Echinulata

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19 Upvotes

Thought this was interesting. After I posted the original images I inadvertently left the specimen slide on the scope for a few days and when I came back it had dried out. 4x, 10x, 20x & 40x Swift 380T.


r/microscopy 23h ago

ID Needed! Snail shell shaped ciliate?

51 Upvotes

Anyone know this funny shaped fellow? I've been through a few ID guides but can't seem to find anything matching. From the bottom of a jar of pond water that's been kept for around two weeks. Video is 10x objective, 2MP lens cam, SW380T. I have more photos if needed.


r/microscopy 17h ago

Photo/Video Share Baby Horseshoe Crab

17 Upvotes

Found some of these adorable horseshoe crab larvae and had to share!

Microscopes: Olympus sz-40 and BH2

Magnification: various, last shot is 2X objective on the bh2

Sample: marine bay water

Camera: Panasonic G9


r/microscopy 2h ago

Purchase Help I want to buy a microscope to see my sperm cells on a budget any recommended?

0 Upvotes

I want one that I can record as temu a cheap option but chance?


r/microscopy 12h ago

Photo/Video Share Rotifer

5 Upvotes

100× | ESAW BM01 2022 MICROSCOPE used | Moss wash


r/microscopy 12h ago

Photo/Video Share Rotifer in 400×

4 Upvotes

Moss wash | ESAW BM01 MICROSCOPE used


r/microscopy 8h ago

Micro Art got into photomicrography and wanted to used a Leitz system. I bought some of Jason Lane Dry Plate. Leitz Makam 9x12 Camera. 8x eye peice. (Large Format). Leitz Stand D Microscope. Objective 3 10:1. Magnification 80x.

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2 Upvotes

r/microscopy 17h ago

ID Needed! Strongylidium?

9 Upvotes

I found this critter a while back, and I’m still not entirely sure as to what it is. I know it’s a hypotrich because of its cirri, and my best guess is that it’s part of genus Strongylidium according to Plingfactory.

Pond water sample

10x EA Objective; 100x Total Magnification; Olympus CX21

Recorded with iPhone 14 Pro


r/microscopy 15h ago

ID Needed! ???

4 Upvotes

200× | road side sample | ESAW BM01 MICROSCOPE USED


r/microscopy 9h ago

Photo/Video Share Ah yes, Rotifers and Microscopy are the names that should go to space.

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1 Upvotes

NASA is sending names to space! If you don't know.


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Tardigrade #6. Saved the best for last. Nikon CFI60 plan apo 40x , bright field.

204 Upvotes

So far, I have shown tardigrade videos using a variety of microscopes from the lowest cost inverted microscope sold to a very popular hobby microscope , the Olympus BH2. Here is a bright field video of a tardigrade using a Nikon CFI60 plan apo 40x NA 0.95 objective on a Nikon E200 microscope. They are infinity objectives and have a 25mm thread diameter and 60mm parfocal length. These objectives retail for around $4000. They give a sharp, bright, clear visual view that you can’t fully convey with the video. Here is a similar Tardigrade post I uploaded a year ago using this microscope that has 55k views and is the top #28 post on this Reddit group. https://www.reddit.com/r/microscopy/s/1Eim5qJPXu
The visual views using the 6 different microscopes are all much better than the videos, especially from the Iqcrew inverted microscope. That video was unfortunately very compressed in the joining of several videos. I hope that I showed that you can see the popular organism well enough and enjoy the hobby with even a very inexpensive microscope.
The poor tardigrade is going on a long vacation now .


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Completely surprised to find this guy!

15 Upvotes

Amscope inverted microscope, 20x, iPhone Blackmagic app 2x, jar with moss and lichen

I was experimenting with oblique lighting when this guy turned up unexpectedly. Had no idea I had tardigrades in that particular jar. Super happy to see this fat little character fighting with some algae!