Customer Reviews

How to Know the Protozoa (Pictured Key Nature Series)

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This book is perfect for the serious amateur who is interested in identifying and understanding the protozoa. It is extensively illustrated with meticulously crafted pen-and-ink drawings, and the author gives us instructions on how (and why!) to make good drawings of our own. The book is technical enough to be useful, with the technical terms carefully defined and explained. The coverage of the organisms is thorough and practical, given that to key out protozoans much further than the family level requires professional training. This is the most useful book I have found so far in my quest to identify the microscopic organisms of Guam.

While the classification of "protozoans" has altered much over the last few years, Jahn et al. has remained as a standard text for identifying these strange microscopic creatures. The second edition was published in 1978 and the fact that it is still in print indicates its utility.

When used with Kudo's "Protozology" and the more recent "Free-Living Freshwater Protozoa: A Color Guide" by D. J. Patterson, along with a phase-contrast compound microscope, almost any known protozoan can be determined to genus. Even with simpler equipment most can be reasonably placed to genus. Phase contrast is useful to more easily see some of the characters, such as cilia and cirri.

In general, this is a very user friendly book (as are most, if not all, of the books in the "How to Know" series.) Some sections that are especially useful include those on protozoan sizes (absolutely necessary in most cases), drawing protozoans, and motion in protozoans. The illustrations are generally very good and clearly show characters needed to identify a specimen. The descriptions are equally clear and helpful. In addition, specialized terms are defined in the index, a very useful innovation as you only have to look them up once!

If you are interested at all in microscopic organisms, either as a professional or an amateur, this book is a must for your library.

I run a microscope sales company (MicroscopeWorld.com) and used this book a few years ago when we produced a high school video program on Protozoology. It was indispensable for identifying the many protozoans found in fresh water. I highly recommend it!