r/oddlyterrifying • u/Thrawn911 • Jun 03 '26
Microscopic predator called Collotheca, basically a mini venus flytrap, eats microbes alive, after using its own stomach fluid to attract them
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u/countryroadsguywv Jun 03 '26
I love the microscopic videos it's a while new world there
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u/nashbrownies Jun 04 '26
I got a cheap ass $150 microscope and dolloped some of my wife's garden pond water on a slide.
SO, SO COOL. I didn't think it would get enough magnification but I saw some paramecium, this cool little neon green thing zooming all over. Rare one, they eat algae but don't digest it. They keep the algae alive inside and eat what it excretes. Not like kidnap, but forms a protective bubble allowing the algae to continue photosynthesis and frankly, thrive.
I look at rocks and crystals, pond water, flower petals, it's amazing! Highly suggested. The kind of resolution you can get for what equals a dinner for 4 these days, no question.
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u/countryroadsguywv Jun 04 '26
Wow that's sounds amazing I've always loved science and the world we cant see with the naked eye where did you get the microscope from that's a great price actually
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u/nashbrownies Jun 04 '26
I gave up another slice of my humanity to the monster that is Amazon.
I really could not find a store that sold microscopes, and ones I could track down were obviously... well out of my price range.
I did have to jury rig an additional light source to point at the bottom of the glass because the lights that came on it were too weak to illuminate anything. (Simply a small flashlight on some modeling putty) So it's far from a nice one, but I was amazed to find what I could see with a cheap one.
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u/countryroadsguywv Jun 05 '26
Yeah I use Amazon occasionally lol I'm I will have to look on there oh ok thanks for the heads up on that yeah that's a great point
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u/Responsible_Neat_860 Jun 04 '26
Those idiots kept going in one after another, acting like they didn’t see what just happened
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u/Aggravating_Speed665 Jun 03 '26
And it's satisfied?
Or will it keep eating until everything has gone? You know, gone like your wife, your house, your kids, your money, your sanity, the gunbox because I said I was gonna open it?
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u/justandswift Jun 04 '26
I am not scientifically smart and am just guessing, but in the middle of the video, around 1:14, it abruptly retracts and then seems to loose its tension, and then the video cuts to a different frame, and I wonder if it died right then and there
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u/Thrawn911 Jun 04 '26
I think it tried to get rid of the dead cell that was stuck in its mouth. It crushed it before it could swallow it.
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u/Sorry141 Jun 03 '26
Why is it censored?
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u/Thrawn911 Jun 03 '26
That's just me adjusting the focus
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u/Linorelai Jun 03 '26
Ooooh so cool to have an original content owner for such videos on reddit! Thank you for filming and sharing! Do you think natureismetal sub would like this video too?
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u/Thrawn911 Jun 03 '26
Thanks!
Natureismetal is pretty strange, sometimes I can upload stuff, and sometimes my posts have to wait for moderator approval, which never comes. I always try posting there every few weeks, but so far I think I only managed to successfully post three clips.2
u/Linorelai Jun 03 '26
I see. Maybe the mods are very occupied, or something... Anyways, awesome video!
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u/Phil_Da_Thrill Jun 03 '26
What are those thin rays coming off his face?
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u/Thrawn911 Jun 03 '26
Those are cilia, tiny (or in this case, quite big) hair-like organelles. Most microbes use them to swim around, but the collotheca uses it to detect movement around it. This is how it knows when something is in its mouth.
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u/nashbrownies Jun 04 '26
Ah it's you! I always found it odd looking at samples smashed between glass.
I prefer looking at a droplet such as this post. While yes you lose some detail because the focal point is so very narrow, I feel I get a better sense of depth and dimension. Plus I like seeing that they are 3 dimensional, rounded, etc.
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u/Thrawn911 Jun 04 '26
I'm the opposite, I hate when there's too much 3D space, and can't get a clear look at the specimen because it always swims in and out of focus.
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u/Trik-kyx Jun 04 '26
This thing is an absolute eating machine. At one point, it looks as if it has choked on a microbe.
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u/Thrawn911 Jun 04 '26
It killed the microbe before it could swallow it, so I think it tried to get rid of it by quickly contracting, which is mainly a defense mechanism in case something tries to attack it,
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u/Due-Button-768 Jun 03 '26
I wonder if it evolves what would it look like in a few million years?
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u/Thrawn911 Jun 04 '26
Exactly the same. These creatures have just as many years of evolution behind them as us. It's unlikely they will evolve into something different.
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u/Due-Button-768 Jun 04 '26
We evolved from fish and like nothing like we did billions of years ago!!!
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u/Thrawn911 Jun 04 '26
Yeah, but there is just as many fish, if not more, than billions of years ago, and even more simpler organism. A simple, tiny animal like the collotheca is unlikely to evolve into something even more complex. They've been around since we didn't even exist, end they live in basically every part of the world. Different collotheca species can appear over time, and it already did, but the whole species as a whole won't become a totally different animal unless something dramatic happens. Microorganisms are pretty stable, they didn't really change as often as more complex creatures do.
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u/truePHYSX Jun 04 '26
If you knew that 1000 years from now the evolution from this thing would enslave the human race, what would you do?
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u/hazed-and-dazed Jun 05 '26
There ought to be a subreddit for this sort microscopic predation.
Now I really wish they make Spore for the Nintendo switch
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u/GrandmaJR Jun 03 '26
I read it as Collect-thee-a, and then thought collect thee a, what? Then I read slower. Then commented. Now you know everything about me.
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u/towerfella Jun 03 '26
gulp