#lecane

[todropscience]

This is a freshwater amazon rotifer (Lecane sp) parasitized by Myzocytiopsis zoophthora, a species of zoosporic fungal organism, whose flagellated spores are similar to animals in the way they move using its flagellum. The circles in the degenerate body of the rotifers are oospores, is a thick-walled sexual spore that develops in the microscopic fungi. The parasitic influence of Myzocytiopsis zoophthora affects the dynamics of rotifers population, since rotifers are the food of many aquatic invertebrates.

Photograph by Ribamar Rocha/ Centro de Ciências da Natureza da Universidade Federal do Piauí 

via PESQUISA FAPESP

[micro-scopic-blog]

Lecane Rotifer

Rotifers are extremely common and can be found in many freshwater environments and in moist soil, where they inhabit the thin films of water surrounding soil particles. Their habitats may include still water environments, such as lake bottoms, as well as rivers or streams. They are also commonly found on mosses and lichens, in rain gutters and puddles, in soil or leaf litter, on mushrooms growing near dead trees, in tanks of sewage treatment plants, and even on freshwater crustaceans and aquatic insect larvae.