-
Clusters of these rotifers with prehensile and flexible stalks were occasionally found in Lake Donghu, China. Generic identification by Hendrik Seegers. Phase contrast micrograph.
-
Floscularia (floss-cue-lair-ee-a) an illoricate rotifer (metazoa), lives within a test, the walls of which are made up of pellets constructed by the animal in a specialized organ on the head. Feeds with an array of cilia (called a corona) which is made up of four lobes. With lateral projections called antennae. Phase contrast.
-
Courtesy of ANSP (Jersabek et al. 2003); females, dorsal (left) and anterior (right) views
-
Conochilus (cone-ow-kile-us), this is a colonial rotifer (metazoa), in which the basal parts of the rotifers are embedded in a common gelatinous matrix. The feeding areas, the coronas, project outwards. Rotifers are common members of the microbial communities of many aquatic ecosystems. Although they are multiceullar animals, they may be only be 100 microns long, and so overlap in size with ciliates. They can be confused with ciliates because they use cilia to capture their food. However, they can be distinguished because they have an exoskeleton, usually two posterior toes, and a tough pharyngeal region just behind the head. Dark ground illumination.
-
-
Colonial planktonic rotifer forms colonies up to several millimetres in diameter. This is an unconstrained colony.
-
Courtesy of ANSP (Jersabek et al. 2003); female, ventral view
-
Colonial rotifer, crompressed between slide and coverslip. The organisms are joined at their toes and are embedded in a fine mucus. All colonies at this site had green algae near their cores. The metachronal beat of the cilia is seen in some organisms.
-
Courtesy of ANSP (Jersabek et al. 2003); female, dorsal view
-
One organism from a colony. Phase contrast optics.
-
Courtesy of ANSP (Jersabek et al. 2003); female, ventral view
-
Courtesy of ANSP (Jersabek et al. 2003); female, ventral view
-
Courtesy of ANSP (Jersabek et al. 2003); female, ventral view
-
-
Courtesy of ANSP (Jersabek et al. 2003); female, dorsal view
-
-
-
-
Courtesy of ANSP (Jersabek et al. 2003); females, ventral (1193), and lateral (1194) views
-
-
-
-
-