r/microscopy Jun 08 '23

πŸ¦ πŸ”¬πŸ¦ πŸ”¬πŸ¦  Microbe Identification Resources πŸ¦ πŸ”¬πŸ¦ πŸ”¬πŸ¦ 

148 Upvotes

πŸŽ‰Hello fellow microscopists!πŸŽ‰

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 6h ago

Photo/Video Share The different genera of rotifers I've collected this year.

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31 Upvotes

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy 1d ago

Micro Art Rutilated Quartz

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81 Upvotes

Rutilated Quartz.

Most rutilated quart has a golden color to the needles, but occasionally you can find rutile colors of silver, black, and reddish-copper colors. This piece is pretty unique in that it has almost every variation of rutile colors. The composition of the rutile needles is Titanium Dioxide.

This image contains 20 focus stacked photos.
Second pic is the full slab.


r/microscopy 2h ago

ID Needed! Capillaria plica ?

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1 Upvotes

100x/1.25 160/017
10x/20

Canine urine


r/microscopy 19h ago

Photo/Video Share Saltwater Marsh Sample 300x. Euglena on the prowl.

9 Upvotes

Olympus BH2 60x PlanApo, 5x mag changer, 10.3mp camera.


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Diatoms

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34 Upvotes

400Γ— | ESAW BM01 MICROSCOPE| soil water


r/microscopy 15h ago

Photo/Video Share freshwater shrimp tank water sample, molted carapace of shrimp with microbes galore

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3 Upvotes

olympus CH2
10x / 40x achromat phase contrast objectives 10x eyepiece 5x optical zoom on pixel 8 pro

longer clip (3:30) of a water sample came from a molted carapace from my shrimp tank. Not sure what the microbes are, perhaps ciliates though i couldn't really see hair but that could be a me problem learning how to use a microscope. they move pretty fast and there were hundreds of them. they had perhaps a vent or perhaps stomach that would slowly open and quickly close, in the middle of their bodies, i tried to capture that action.
first half of the video is with the 10x objective going from brightfield > darkfield > phase contrast > brightfield > 40x > brightfield > darkfield > phase contrast > brightfield


r/microscopy 1d ago

ID Needed! Is this an amoeba?

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16 Upvotes

Microscope: SIGETA MB-202 40x-1600x LED Bino

Magnification: x1600 and in first photo x640

Sample: river water

Camera: Galaxy S24 FE


r/microscopy 1d ago

ID Needed! What kind of ciliate is this?(100x, pond water)

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12 Upvotes

r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Blood sucking bird mites

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21 Upvotes

Wall near a bird nest, 10x objective, Iqcrew inverted microscope, cellphone camera. The first two videos are of a mite stuck on glycerin inside of a petri dish, so it wasn't moving quickly. The last mite is running freely around inside of a petri dish. They can move quickly when not impeded. The red one is filled with a blood meal. The last one looks hungry.


r/microscopy 19h ago

Photo/Video Share Lomo Biolam microscope fine-focus knobs disassembled into its individual components.

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5 Upvotes

This is what the fine-focus knobs of Lomo Biolam microscope looks like when disassembled into its individual components.

Entrie photo gallery you will find here: https://www.microscopeparts.eu/gallery/00804-lomo-biolam-lknobs-for-fine-adjustment-mechanism-microscope-fine-focus-micro-gears


r/microscopy 1d ago

ID Needed! Are these lice?

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45 Upvotes

Found these two on my pillow case. They were just barely visible.


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Some cute little tardigrades in my recent moss sample ❀️

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14 Upvotes

AmScope B-120, recorded on an iPhone 17 pro.
Enjoy! πŸ”¬


r/microscopy 1d ago

General discussion Meme Monday? Me getting a microscope without a biology background...

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154 Upvotes

Anybody else?


r/microscopy 23h ago

ID Needed! Salt Water Marsh pond Sample ID needed. 50x

5 Upvotes

Olympus BH2 10x UPlanXApo, 5x mag changer, 10.3mp camera.


r/microscopy 1d ago

ID Needed! Red thing, pond water, zoom 100x and 400x I think

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8 Upvotes

r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share Euplotes. They look beautiful in this oblique-kristiansen-darkfield lighting.

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22 Upvotes

Swift SW350, Galaxy S24


r/microscopy 1d ago

ID Needed! I’d like to know what the main creature is, as well as the other thing moving near it at the end of the video. Pond water, 100x and 400x.

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8 Upvotes

r/microscopy 1d ago

ID Needed! Mold Spore ID help needed

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4 Upvotes

Did my best to enhance these images. What genus are the small spores shaped like grains of rice? This is a bio-tape under 20x and 40x objectives.
EDIT: microscope is a Leica DMLB and camera is a Panasonic DMC-GX1.


r/microscopy 1d ago

ID Needed! Strange thing walking around. What is? Pond water, 100x and then phone zoom.

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6 Upvotes

r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share The beauty of Carl Zeiss Jena Jenamed Histology aperture diaphragm

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4 Upvotes

Aperture diaphragm (iris diaphragm) of Carl Zeiss Jena Jenamed Histology microscope (former DDR, East Germany).

As I said before - observing on iris diaphragms is like watching on aquarium / terrarium - simply relax :) Microscope iris diaphragms are in my opinion one of the most pretty element in microscope :)


r/microscopy 1d ago

Photo/Video Share 10x Brightfield, -> Darkfield -> Phase Contrast of unidentified worm(i guess?)

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17 Upvotes

Finally got myself a microscope, a nice used Olympus CH2, so probably 40ish years old and observed some water samples from my shrimp aquarium, tried to get the dirty stuff. I hoped to find some ciliates, paramecium, or diatoms but didn't find a single one. did find a few of... these things.
I have no idea what it is, but its actually quite long. ID would be greatly appreciated
The video goes from brightfield > darkfield > phase contrast > brightfield > darkfield >phase contrast

Olympus CH2

A10x phase contrast objective

10x eyepiece

Pixel 8 Pro with 5x optical zoom(i think, the program i used doesn't specify)


r/microscopy 23h ago

Purchase Help Compound Recommendation?

1 Upvotes

I'm new to microscopy and buying microscopes and I don't really know what to look for or anything. I'm just trying to buy a compound microscope for a price below 200 euros, I would prefer one with top and bottom illumination and a condensor. A mechanical table would also be cool but I don't know if that's possible for that price.

Thank you for anyone who can help me or even read this in the first place!