Ciliate-in-a-test-tube

Who said test-tube babies were 'unnatural'?

Undella hyalina, a tintinnid ciliate. Tintinnids craft wonderful loricas out of organic materials, often studding them with bits of random gunk (but not in this case).
http://www.obs-vlfr.fr/gallery/album316/undellopsis_hyalina

There's something quite adorable about a ciliate who willingly crawls into a test-tube by itself. In fact, it actually makes its own test-tube. If only all the protists could just grown their own flasks, fill them with optimal media, and culture themselves*...

More to come soon!

*Technically, they do culture themselves, quite successfully too. Just not in conditions convenient for researchers...