#ploima

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