### Identification If you peer through a high-powered lens at a drop of moss-water, you may encounter the elegant *Abrochtha intermedia*. Measuring roughly 250–400 micrometers, this bdelloid rotifer possesses a slender, spindle-shaped body that is remarkably transparent, often revealing its internal organs and a yellowish "mastax" (grinding pharynx). Look for its twin "ciliated wheels," or corona, which it unfurls like a blooming flower to feed. It is easily distinguished from the common *Philodina* by its more streamlined silhouette and a distinctively jointed "foot" ending in four tiny, nimble toes used for anchoring.
### Habitat & Range These "wheel animals" are true cosmopolitans, found globally from alpine tarns to backyard birdbaths. They favor the "micro-jungles" of damp mosses (*Sphagnum*), moist leaf litter, and lichen. They are masters of ephemeral environments, thriving in any niche where a film of water persists, regardless of elevation.
### Behaviour Observation reveals a frantic, fascinating life. *A. intermedia* exhibits "inching" or "looper" locomotion—anchoring its head, pulling its tail up, and then extending forward like a leech. When swimming, it retracts its foot and uses its cilia to glide gracefully. If the environment dries out, the animal "telescopes" into itself, forming a dormant, seed-like "tun" that can survive for decades. Notably, you will never find a male; they reproduce entirely through parthenogenesis.
### Diet *A. intermedia* is a microscopic vortex-feeder. By rapidly beating its coronal cilia, it creates a powerful whirlpool that sucks in bacteria, yeast, and organic detritus. It functions as a tiny vacuum cleaner, processing thousands of particles an hour to keep its micro-ecosystem clean.
### Fascinating Fact *A. intermedia* is a genetic thief! Having abandoned sex roughly 40 million years ago, it survives by "stealing" DNA from the bacteria, fungi, and plants it eats, incorporating those foreign genes into its own genome to adapt and evolve.