Welcome to Droplet, a website devoted to microscopy of protozoa.
The protozoa are a fascinating, immensely diverse group of single cellular organisms.
Some are very well known ( Paramecium ),
some are not ( Lembadion ).
Some are very small ( Cyclidium ),
some are huge ( Spirostomum ).
Some inhabit fresh water ( Urocentrum ),
some are marine ( Spiroloculina ),
some live in soil ( Actinophrys ), some
in wet moss ( Nassula ).
Some feed on debris and bacteria ( Tetrahymena ),
some are voracious predators ( Dileptus ),
some are parasites ( Ichthyophthirius ).
Many are colorless, but some have very distinct colors ( Stentor,
Blepharisma, Euglena ).
Some are sessile ( Vorticella ),
some move slowly ( Trichamoeba ), some can swim
very fast ( Strombidium ),
some can even "jump" ( Halteria ).
Some build shells ( Arcella ). Some
have incredibly complex and beautiful skeletons ( Calocyclas ).
Some can form a colony ( Carchesium ).
On this website I would like to share my passion for observing these tiny organisms.
Please note: I am an inexperienced amateur. I don't have any
background in protozoology. I did my best to classify and describe the presented genera
as accurate as possible, but mistakes are difficult to avoid. I will appreciate all
comments, suggestions, corrections, and criticisms. You can contact me via my email
address: 
Finally, a few technical comments. For every presented image
I have given a name of a genus (or, in some cases, a specimen name), a source of origin,
a date when a specimen was collected, and an observation technique used.
Most of the photographs presented here are digitally processed (cropped, resized,
contrast enhanced, white balance corrected, and background removed).
The images are JPEG files compressed using a high quality setting.
If you need high resolution copies of the images, please contact me directly.
You need to enable a Java Script in your web browser to display this website properly.
Firefox, Safari, Opera and IE work best, Mozilla, Netscape 7, and OmniWeb are OK.
This website is best viewed in 1024x768 screen resolution.
And last, but not least: you are welcome to visit my personal web site, www.pirx.com
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