portrait

Description:

Epistylis (ee-piss-still-iss), a peritrich ciliate. The organism has a bell-shaped body and a stalk. The stalk contains no contractile elements (unlike Vorticella or Zoothamnium), and it is by this characteristic that the genus is distinguished. The only cilia present in the trophic cell are the mouth cilia, which form a wreath around the top of the cell before descending into the narrowing buccal cavity. Food vacuoles are formed at the base of this cavity. Locomotor cilia are produced at the rear end of distressed cells which can then break away from the stalk. After division, one daughter cell has the posterior cilia and can swim - and is referred to as a telotroch larva. Differential interference contrast.