The Rotifer's lunch

Dispite their small dimensions, Rotifers are multicelled animals. Rotifers, whose name in latin means "wheel-bearer", have a crown of cilia around the mouth that they use to make a water circulation.
The Video shows a rotifer (Philodina sp. ?) while feeding. Thanks to the microscope technique called dark field, it's possible to see the particles of organic matter moving toward the mouth of the organism. Food is then passed into the "mastax", a structure to grind the food.
Rotifers are omnivorous; their diet most commonly consists of dead or decomposing organic materials, as well as unicellular algae.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• rotifer
• feeding
• mastax
• dark
• field

[scowell]

Thanks for this video... best feeding video I've seen. You can really see the vortices set up by the corona. Hot rotifer action!

[marcopic66]

Thank you, scowell. The darkfield illumination is one of microscope techniques I prefer. In this video it helps us see better cilia of corona.

[Daniel39363]

What are the red circles to the left. The reason I'm asking is because when I was observing rotifers from a bird feeder, I noticed those red circles.

[marcopic66]

I suppose (I'm not really sure) they are microalgae belonging to the species Haematococcus pluvialis; they are tipically present in bird feeder.

[Sweetcheeks7587]

this is the best i've seen! thanks for the arrows!