Floscularia (rotifer)

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Charles Krebs
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Location: Issaquah, WA USA

Floscularia (rotifer)

Post by Charles Krebs »

The upper image shows the entire animal, while the lower two show detail of the corona and cilia in action.
20X on upper image, 40X on lower two.
(edited subject header to correct ID)


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Last edited by Charles Krebs on Sat May 06, 2006 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Beautiful. :D These things are supposed to be multicellualr but I have yet to see a cell from one or am I looking to hard? Great stuff Charlie! :D
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Charles Krebs
Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:50 am
Location: Issaquah, WA USA

Post by Charles Krebs »

Thanks Ken. Don't know how hard or easy these are to find... fortunately the pond I frequent seems to have a good supply. Since they do build their tubes they need a pretty reliable substrate, and they tend to occur in small groups. I find them on the lower side of duckweed leaves and attached to thin grasses growing in the water. The tubes have reddish color, and can be just seen with the naked eye (or in my case, these days, with reading glasses)

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Frez
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Post by Frez »

So what is the tube made of? Does the Rotifer make those cells or is it some type of symbiotic relationship? Well done!

Frez

bernhardinho
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Post by bernhardinho »

Hi folks,

First of all I don't think it's Limnia. These tubes made of round pills are typical for Floscularia ( Limnia forms rings, making it look like a caterpillar). I found some rather amazing facts about how they produce these pills. There are species that use their own faeces!! Meaning that after they defecate they form a pill from the faeces, bend and glue it to their tubes! Other species have glands in their heads, producing a kind of cement which they mix with detritus and hence forming a pill.
Concerning the cells: as you probably know, the "skin" of a rotifer is called a syncytium. That means you don't have cell walls, thus you can't see cells! What you see are the nuclei, that is how we know they're cell constant.


Bernhard

Charles Krebs
Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:50 am
Location: Issaquah, WA USA

Post by Charles Krebs »

Bernhard... I'm glad you have corrected my clumsy ID. It is, of course, Floscularia.

I actually knew this...sad to see that my ID'ing capability is actually declining instead of improving :( :wink:

see: http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... php?t=2456

It shows the round "bricks" being made.

The process of making the round "bricks" for it's tube is fascinating to watch. Undoubtedly a good portion of these bricks is made up of the animals excrement. When the animal "relieves" itself, a small cloud of debris leaves the top of the tube. Some of this inevitably gets caught up in the cilia motion and gets into the ball-creation process. But it appears that even when this "excrement" is not present, the process continues, and you can observe the ball increasing in size from the "general debris" that is present in the water.

The process of adding each ball is also interesting. Once the ball has reached proper size, the animal quickly pulls itself down into the tube (as it does when startled by something), but on it's way into the tube it arches backwards and "plants" the ball on the top edge of the tube. It goes very rapidly (sort of like watching a basketball player make a "slam-dunk").

I took a few new "tight" shots of this process, but I don't know if they are any better than the ones I just referenced above. I'll take a look and perhaps add a couple more.

And if anyone want to see the difference between the tubes made by Floscularia and Limnias, you can compare the top image in this post with an older one here:

http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... php?t=3014

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