Gerda glans

Phylum: Ciliophora

Class: Oligohymenophorea

Order: Peritrichida

Family: Ophrydiidae

Genus: Gerda

Species: G.glans

 

You've found something more interesting, a peritrich called Gerda (likely G. glans). Kahl considered Gerda glans it to be species of Ophrydium, and includes in that genus several species which are probably synonyms (Ophrydium lemnae, O. vernale, O. sigmoides). Eugene Penard described it in 1922 under the name Ophrydium boreale. Since then, Gerda has been reinstated as a genus on its own. Gerda glans does make a mucilaginous lorica, which is said to be very inconspicuous (Penard calls it "nearly invisible"). Unlike the rigid loricae of vaginicolids, it is a temporary structure which the ciliate readily abandons - Bruce Taylor

Done