1000x Bright Field

Above is one of the Rotifers close up- looks like a sea serpent when the cilia are not extended!

You never know what you will find under the microscope. . . .1000x

ok, here is our Philodina, at the beginning of this photo session- Bright field, with his friend the Brachionus

Brachionus is a very common genus also.

Rotifers get their name from the corona, which is composed of several ciliated tufts around the mouth that when in motion resembles  wheels.

here is almost looks like a double ring of cilia, some lower hair on the cingulum

Rotifera - derived from Latin and meaning "wheel-bearer"; they have also been called wheel animalcules

These "wheels" create a current that sweeps food into the mouth, where it is chewed up by a characteristic pharynx (mastax) containing tiny jaws.

 

1000x

1000x

The corona is a crown of cilia

Rotifers are microscopic aquatic animals of the phylum Rotifera.

They are very active predators and scavengers. 

This is a blow-up of the jaws or mastax

The mastax is a muscular pharynx containing a complex set of hard jaws or trophi and is found in all rotifers

The foot with spurs (2) and toes(4)

Nearly all rotifers have chitinous jaws called trophi that grind and shred food.

The foot ends in a "toe" containing a cement gland with which the rotifer may attach itself to objects in the water

They twist and turn in all different directions

 

The rotifer can undergo extreme contractions and distortions as it moves

These Rotifers live in both freshwater and marine environments as well as soil and can also live as parasites.

Most rotifers are around 0.1-0.5 mm long

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Rotifera

Digononta (Bdelloidea)

Philodinidae

Philodina  sp

Here you can see the rotifer is starting to shrivel up and encase itself in a shell  and cyst during stressful times

Sometimes, the rotifer uses the cilia on the corona for locomotion

they have digestive glands, intestines and a stomach

sometimes the eyespots are very easy to pick out