Starting to dig the hydrozoan thing

[Jo]

Hi,

I'm playing catchup on the lingo and biology of Hydrozoan, but I just shot a white deposit that came from a small pimple on my cheek and I'm wondering if its of the Hydrozoan variety?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23443895@N06/

[chester]

Thanks for the great photos Jo. I see similarities with what i am finding. When you look at the fibers, look into them and you will notice they are filled with single file balls. I think these fibers are like a casing. Once in the skin, they dissolve and the balls spill out, and re-combine to make the lesion. Once this organism is in the making....it can also remake the fibers with the balls in them, and send them out to make more organisms. I wish we could find a web site of photos of how hydrozoa or bryozoan are created. The one that looks like a wing, may not be....it may be the design of this organism coated in its ooze. I found a name for this jellylike coating...mesenchyme. Or, this could be a bug wing...on Steves forum we are talking about the idea of a bryozoan colony making a bug as a specialized zooid. Keep up with the great photos, we have to learn to listen to what they are saying to correctly identify this.

[Jo]

Thanks Chester, I'll study those fibres some more. One thing Harvey and Neumann agree on is that the fibres are hollow - protecting something living inside them. Harvey says worms and Neumann says not worms or bryozoan.

I hope 2008 is the year for IDing these suckers or at least agreeing on the culprit

Jo xx