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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 3464

Umezawa Shun-ichi; [Influence of the Evaporation Velocity on the Desiccation Death of the Rotifer (III)]. Research Reports of The Kochi University 2(12):1-5, 1953

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Effect of the evaporation velocity on the desiccation death of the rotifer, Philodina roseola, inhabiting in Kochi, was investigated. The animals were individually desiccated on slide-glass or on filter paper under a definite drying condition. The rate of loss of water from slide-glass is greater than that of water from filter paper. The animal dried on slide-glass is more injuriously affected than that on filter paper. It is hardly recognized, however, that the rapid drying on slide-glass exerts a mechanical injury to the animals, and is shown that the all of them isolated on filter paper survive well after the slow desiccation. In another experiment, even when the animals placed on filter paper were exposed to the intensive desiccation in the P2O5-desiccator, they could survive without injury of a long period, but the number of individuals killed by the desiccation increases with the time of the drying. It is to be confirmed from these results that the desiccation death seems to occur owing to the fact that the loss of water from the animals exceeds their fatal limiting values.