Rotifers of Germany and Neighbouring Countries Located in the southern part of the Ruhr-District/ Germany, we are currently working on a survey of the occurence of rotifer species of Germany with emphasis on local species. The taxa presented here have been mainly identified by the works of Koste, De Smet, Nogrady, Pourriot and Segers (monogonont rotifers) and Donner (bdelloid rotifers). Species List (alphabetical) >>>>>> Taxonomic Groups Rotifera 1 Digononta Bdelloida Rotifera 2 Ploimida 1 Epiphanidae, Brachionidae, Euchlanidae Rotifera 3 Ploimida 2 Mytilinidae, Trichotriidae, Colurellidae Rotifera 4 Ploimida 3 Lecanidae, Proalidae, Lindiidae, Rotifera 5 Ploimida 4 Scariidae, Notommatidae, Trichocercidae, Gastropodidae Rotifera 6 Ploimida 5 Synchaetidae, Asplanchnidae, Dicranophoridae, Microcodinidae Rotifera 7 Gnesiotrocha Testudinellidae, Flosculariidae, Hexarthridae, Filiniidae, Collothecidae, Conochilidae morphology Frontal aspects of bdelloid rotifers It is of course a trivial thing to point out that the name of the "wheel animalcules" is derived from the "wheel-like" appearance of their front part. Although I have been dealing with this creatures for quite some time now, there are still certain phenomena that are fascinating for me, and there are also some phenomena which I still don't really understand. More on this here >>> rotifer males Females of monogonont rotifers produce three different sorts of eggs: (1) diploid amictic eggs from which amictic females hatch, (2) haploid mictic eggs that develop into diploid resting eggs if fertilized and (3) haploid mictic eggs which develop into haploid males if not fertilized. In most monogonont species there is sexual dimorphism. They do not have a trophi, so that their identification is not easy. Because most of them are mach smaller than the females they are also hard to find or to recognize. Here are some of them >>> enigmatic rotifers Observing rotifers for more than 15 years sometimes leads to finding some specimens that are not described in the literature (as far as this literature is available through libraries) or sources from the www. A problem of these specimens is that they are single discoveries, so the don´t have scientific significance and therefore may be considered the same status like discoveries of UFO´s. Up to now I had no chance to cultivate such specimens. Nevertheless there might be the faint chance that someone has seen similar creatures, so they are presented here   ecology rotifers and parasites Plankton rotifers as well as others may be heavily infested by (fungal) parasites. Here are some of such infestations >>> rotifers of birdbaths and lithotelmata Bdelloid rotifers are world champions when it comes to survive desiccation. This can be demonstrated even at home if there is a garden with a bowl of water which may serve as birdbath in summer. There are some typical rotifers that can be observed in such birdbaths. Also the granite rocks of the coastal landscape of Brittany/ Francey have dents that can fill with water. (Lithotelmata). In these ephemeral puddles some special rotifers were found, whose characteristic combinatios of traits does not correspond to those of the taxa described in the literature so far. More on this here >>>   rotifer and predators some of the invertebrate predators are presented here >>>     IMPRESSUM DATENSCHUTZ
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