Karol Wałach

Spreading the dung appreciation on the @GrasslandE excursion to Hailuoto - 2 new #DungBeetle enthusiasts from Poland, @KWalach_ & Hubert Brol 🌾🐏💩🪲❤️ #FinlandDungathon

Fantastic opportunity from one of our satellite projects. #SoilMATs are providing a high-level training course, in English, on soil ecology and its fauna. Apply before December 20th. More info in the link cetaf.org/dest/soilmats-… @nhmcrete #NameItToSaveIt

Exciting excursion day at #EGC2024! We explored the stunning dry grasslands of the Vinschger Sonnenberg and the alpine meadows of the Schnalstal. Swipe to see highlights from our field trip.

@KWalach_ presenting a study on how the orthopteran fauna of the Tatra mountains have changed since the 1950s. Not surprisingly, eurytopic species are doing well but xerothermic species are generally in decline.

@madjanev @BertB61027155 Maybe also tardigrades on liverwort microhabitats? I'm not sure whether on the picture there is one (is it wet Xanthoria?), but not too much explored too to be honest 🤔

@BertB61027155 I'd heard about that but not seen the original article! And it has crossed my mind, I'm just waiting for them to get a little bigger so I can collect some poo 🤣

I'm raising some sluglings, likely L. maculatus and struggling to find what they ate as they were turning their noses up at all the foods I offer sluglings. Then I thought L. maculatus climbs trees, let's offer them a nice licheny twig, and bingo! That's just what they wanted ☺️

We got a present today #tardigrades

@arnoldtortoise @madjanev @KWalachowski Unfortunately it's impossible. Only relatively few species are easily distinguishable (e.g., M. eurystomum), whereas for the majority really detailed photos and even morphometrics are required to ID (though DNA barcodes are the safest option).

This is Hotwheels sisyphus, a new species and genus of #spider we recently published doi.org/10.3897/zookey… Thanks to this carefully curated GIF, you can probably figure out why it was called that.

@madjanev @BertB61027155 I don't honestly know, need to check the latest paper to verify it

Looking at a slide from Skye to make pics and found this little one that I'd missed - is it Paramurrayon hibernicus? It's 225u long, has tiny macrobiotus type claws and I think I can see dense granulation on the skin. 3 macroplacoids, no microplacoid. @BertB61027155 @KWalach_

@madjanev @BertB61027155 Great footage!

Propyxidium tardigradum - what all the best dressed tardigrades are wearing 😂. A Ramazzottius aff. oberhaeuseri with a particularly heavy infestation, although it seems perfectly happy going about its business. @BertB61027155 @KWalach_

@arnoldtortoise @madjanev @BertB61027155 @ryeharbour_NR It's a Macrobiotus - its buccal tube for a bit squeezed when preparing the slide. That's why it looks so odd

@arnoldtortoise @madjanev It's a Ramazzottius sp., most possibly from the oberhaeuseri group :)

@madjanev @arnoldtortoise @BertB61027155 Wow, very interesting infection! First time seeing such one too. But yes, it's Ramazzottius cf. oberhaeuseri

@arnoldtortoise Neither have I! I think it might be a fungal infection. I've seen them with hyphae erupting from their feet, but not all over like this. Perhaps @BertB61027155 or @KWalach_ have seen this sort of thing? Going on the pattern and macroplacoids, it's a Ramazzottius aff oberhaeuseri.

@BertB61027155 @madjanev [2-3]-[3-2] in last stage*

@KWalach_ @madjanev Very nice investigation showing an ontogenetic reduction in spurs on legs IV. M. tardigradum is a strong possibility but would require further investigation to confirm. Interestingly M. tardigradum starts with a [3-3]-[3-3] then [2-3]-[3-3] & finally a [2-3]-[2-3] config.

Milnesium claws. I re-extracted and measured all the Milnesium sp. I could find in my Oak tree moss, and counted claw points. Looks like the little ones start with 3-3 on IV, but I did find one adult shed skin with 3-3, 3-2 & 1 with 4 points on a rear claw. @BertB61027155

@madjanev @BertB61027155 I'm not an expert with macrobiotids, but I think that these mushroom-like processes indicate the hufelandi group

After finding my odd Macrobiotus hufelandi, also from my Oak tree moss, I looked for eggs, and these are what I found. Egg diameter 73um, with processes 81um. So, what have I got @BertB61027155 ? I'm not convinced it's hufelandi... @KWalach_

@madjanev @BertB61027155 The density of infestation on that Macrobiotus! Fantastic!

And my final tardigrade post for tonight, I picked up a promising looking licheny twig on Wednesday, and was very pleased to find it housed 5 different species of tardigrade - and a lot of them were carrying the ciliate Propyxidium tardigradum! @BertB61027155 @KWalach_

@BertB61027155 @madjanev Hmm, interesting. No, I haven't got such a specimen before

@KWalach_ @madjanev Hi Karol, actually, I'm not entirely sure. I had something similar with one of my specimens that resolved itself as the slide dried and when viewed under different lighting conditions. Perhaps a structural aberration? Have you come across anything like this?

I'm not sure what I've got here @BertB61027155 ... This was in my re-extracted Oak tree moss sample, where I found Macrobiotus hufelandi (amongst others including lots of Milnesium), but I've not seen macro/micro placoids quite like these before - any ideas?

@BertB61027155 @madjanev Are you sure that it is the connective tissue that makes the macroplacoids visible as 1? Hoyer's medium dissolves these kinds of tissues and highlights the sclerotized parts, which in this case seem to be fused

@madjanev Very nice. This is one of the M. hufelandi grp. species. Connective tissue makes it look as though there is only 1 very long macroplacoid (rather than 2, the 1st with constriction) & a long thin microplacoid that is joined directly to the 2nd macroplacoid. Did you find any eggs?

"Where do thee come from? – Time-calibrated phylogeography of the Nearctic Milnesium (Tardigrada)" - exciting work presented by Karol Wałach #PEC2023 #PolishEvolutionaryConference