Mytilina (Rotifera) Movies

Mytilina Video No. 1 - A Mytilina rotifer feeds, using its toes to move itself around; under phase contrast illumination at a magnification of 400x with a playing time of 26.2 seconds. Choose a playback format that matches your connection speed: 28.8k (modem), 56.6k (modem), or T1/Cable/DSL, or download this video clip in MPEG format (10.9 MB).

Species belonging to this genus are loricate and are found mostly in littoral habitats. Since the lorica is glasslike, as it is in the genus Euchlanis, it is easy to view their internal organs.

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.

Nearly all rotifers have chitinous jaws called trophi that grind and shred food. The trophi are the only part of a rotifer that can be fossilized and have been found in amber dating back to the Eocene epoch (38-55 million years ago).