Illustrated rotifer ID key?

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clengman
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Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2018 2:22 pm

Illustrated rotifer ID key?

#1 Post by clengman » Sat Feb 17, 2018 1:14 am

I'm just getting into home microscopy. I find rotifers fascinating, I'd like to learn more about them. Is there a good guide that might help me to ID them?

Found one tonight in a sample of tree lichen. It was very active. It moved by the "inchworm" style of locomotion. It didn't swim at all. It had a very narrow "head" and mouth parts. It was difficult to see the corona even in the 40x objective, but I did see a little cilia motion when it was positioned just right. It seemed to be feeding by biting of pieces of moss and algae. Any ideas what it might have been? Sorry, I don't have the means to get any good photos at this point.

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actinophrys
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Re: Illustrated rotifer ID key?

#2 Post by actinophrys » Sat Feb 17, 2018 2:20 am

Rotifers that move like inchworms (or leeches, which gives them their name) are in general Bdelloidea, and are very typical of terrestrial habitats since they can survive drying out. Here are some pages I know of that should help for identifying rotifers in general:
  1. Plingfactory: The Rotifers of Germany and Neighbouring Countries
  2. Shiel (1995). A Guide to Identifications of Rotifers, Cladocerans and Copepods from Australian Inland Waters (pdf)
  3. An Image-Based Key to the Zooplankton of North America (though no bdelloids here)
I should probably also offer my page with some more common types, which I would really like to think might be useful to someone starting out. There are good print sources on the subject, too, but it's harder to know what might fit someone's needs in advance. For instance one I know is Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates by Thorp & Covich, which covers a wealth of information about both rotifer biology and classification, but doesn't mind keying off features that can be harder to observe.

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75RR
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Re: Illustrated rotifer ID key?

#3 Post by 75RR » Sat Feb 17, 2018 7:01 am

Here are a couple of links from the Resources (online, books etc.) section that you may find of use:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=703

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=46
Zeiss Standard WL (somewhat fashion challenged) & Wild M8
Olympus E-P2 (Micro Four Thirds Camera)

clengman
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Joined: Mon Jan 29, 2018 2:22 pm

Re: Illustrated rotifer ID key?

#4 Post by clengman » Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:43 pm

Thanks! Good stuff!

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