At last we have found a good source of tardigrades in the garden. A piece of moss growing on one of the concrete paths was soaked for a couple of hours in distilled water in a petri dish and then gently squeezed. We have left the moss in the dish and a few creatures have been finding their way out of it. The bottom of the dish is now a busy place, with tardigrades, rotifers, paramecium and some desmids (?), yet unidentified.

Only one springtail has been seen in this sample, unlike previous ones, which had many.

The water has been topped up every day to make up for evaporation.

Whilst a lot of tardigrades and other creatures are visible with the stereo zoom microscope, we also find the technique of standing the petri dish on a blank microslide useful. The use of a x4 objective is easy and, with a long working distance x10 objective, much detail is visible without any danger of accidentally "dunking" the lens. The one pictured here is by Zeiss.

Using the x4 objective first, just watch and see what is moving. Much of it will be nematoid worms lashing about but, in this sample, there were more than 20 tardigrades - the best haul yet!

I think these are desmids - small algae. They glide around in a smooth but apparently random fashion. Seen from one direction they are rectangular and somewhat reminiscent of a pair of cardboard framed specs for viewing stereo photos. When they turn through 90 degrees they present a different view, with tapering ends. Both views are visible in this photographs, taken with a small sample of water under a coverslip and the x40 objective.

The desmids seemed most numerous near where Bdelloid rotifers were present.

OK, so it's a hopeless shot of the tardigrade BUT it does show the rusty red patch in the centre section, found in over half the tardigrades seen in this sample.

x10 objective

Also available in green....

Life always looks a struggle for tardigrades, their legs constantly waving clumsily as they scrabble their way around. When moulting, though, travel is even more difficult!

You can just about make out some of the old skin just above the red patch.

Strings of green beads? Is this Nostoc linckia or Nostoc commune or something completely different? A few of these were found with the rotifers and desmids. One reference states that they are gelatinous and often found sticking to mosses or floating on the surface, which would fit.

x40 objective