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| In
almost every freshwater pond you can find this polyp
attached to a substrate waiting for prey to come near
it's deadly tentacles. Hydra is larger than one
millimetre (my apologies) but it has many interesting
aspects for viewing under the microscope. Like it's
cousin the jellyfish, Hydra has so-called
nematocysts, stinging harpoons, to paralyse it's prey. It
can swallow a water flea as a whole. Many weird
experiments have been conducted on the creature. It has
for example been turned inside-out through it's own
mouth-opening. More can be read in the Micscape article: Hydra |
