Didinium intiates capture of Paramecium. Believe-it-or-not, this Didinium may accomplish the ingestion of the Paramecium in less than one minute. See other images in the link below. Also showing metac...

Didinium ingests Paramecium. Note that Paramecium is nearly the waiting food vacuole and the proboscis of Didinium is beginning to reform. This micrograph also shows the metachronous waves of cilia in...

Didinium ingests Paramecium. Note that Paramecium is folded in half as it is compressed and enters the waiting food vacuole. This micrograph also shows a few discharged Paramecium trichocysts as well ...

Didinium ingests Paramecium. At the midpoint of engulfment, some 30 seconds after contact. This micrograph was taken in 1968 by G. Antipa on a Cambridge Mark IIA operating at 20kV. The negative magnif...

Food vacuole of Didinium. The food vacuole contains both exploded and unexploded trichocysts of Paramecium. Further details available at Wessenberg, H. and Antipa, G. 1968. Studies on Didinium nasutum...

Cortex and food vacuole of Didinium. The food vacuole contains unexploded trichocysts of Paramecium. Further details available at Wessenberg, H. and Antipa, G. 1968. Studies on Didinium nasutum. I. St...

Didinium ingests Paramecium. Also showing a few discharged trichocysts and metachronous waves of cilia in the two characteristic ciliary girdles of Didinium nasutum. This micrograph was taken in 1968 ...

Didinium captures Paramecium. A moment after initial contact when toxicysts enter Paramecium. The strand of toxicysts can be seen between the two organisms, and Didinium will use the anchored toxicyst...

Didinium captures Paramecium. It is not unusual for an undersized Didinium to attempt to ingest a much larger Paramecium. In this case, the organisms were preserved before the outcome could be determi...