Comments to Mike Dingley.
Observing a Rotifer
Birth
by Mike Dingley
Having good luck as well as a video camera mounted on top of my microscope AND a video tape in the VCR AND having just placed a drop of pond water on a slide to have a look at it. I found what appeared to be an egg of some sort with the embryo moving inside which had caught my attention.
Not having a clue as to what this animal might be I decided to switch on the tape and wait. After about half an hour the egg opened up and a 'thing' pushed its way out, which took all of about 10 seconds to completely remove itself from its enclosure. It then became clear to me that I had witnessed the birth of a Rotifer. I have check my references and I think that it belongs to the Family Epiphanidae but I cannot even guess its genera or species.
However, I recently purchased a 'SNAPPY VIDEO SNAPSHOT' which has allowed me to make single frame shots of the hatching of this rotifer. I have many hours of live video which I can now download into the computer for future articles.
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