Its rapidly beating cilia ( hair-like structures ) bring water-containing food to the rotifer . Technique : differential interference contrast microscopy .
它快速的鞭毛（头发状的结构）将水中的浮游生物带到轮虫中。
Professor terry snell in georgia tech 's school of biology , along with his students and collaborators at woods hole oceanographic institution , studied the partially-sequenced genome of the rotifer and located a receptor for a progesterone-like molecule .
But the females of certain rotifer species can do something quite unusual : they can reproduce asexually by creating clones of themselves , or they can initiate a process that allows sexual reproduction by producing male rotifers .
But when unfavorable environmental conditions threaten -- such as the loss of algae food -- about a third of the rotifer population switches to sexual reproduction , which is the only way the creatures can produce eggs able to survive through a long winter .
