Resting eggs in rotifers

Abstract

The biology of resting eggs of monogonont rotifers is reviewed, covering literature published since the last major review by Gilbert (1974). The topics examined include resting egg production, morphology and species specificity, hatching, and evolutionary significance.

Four major determinants of resting egg production are identified: mictic female production, male activity and fertility, female susceptibility to fertilization, and fertilized female fecundity. Recent work in these four areas is discussed as well as resting egg production in natural populations. Resting egg morphology, particularly shell structure and internal organization, is compared among species. Recent reports on the control of resting egg hatching in the laboratory are examined and the importance of temperature, light, diet, and salinity is reviewed. Two hatching patterns are contrasted, the first where eggs hatch at regular intervals over extended periods and the second where hatching is synchronized to some environmental cue. A latent period after resting egg formation, during which no hatching occurs, is defined for several species. The adaptive features of resting eggs are outlined including their contribution to genetic variability through recombination, their provision for environmental escape by dormancy, and their colonizing function resulting from their ease of dispersal. The type of cue utilized to initiate mictic female production as well as the pattern of resting egg hatching is related to environmental predictability.