Cyrtolophosis mucicola is a very common ciliate that I find in many of my sampling sites. It likes to settle on the floating coverslip, but also on the vessel walls of old samples. The ciliate builds short, gelatinous tubes that can only be recognized by the adhering bacteria or detritus particles. Colonies of individuals often form.

Cyrtolophosis mucicola is a colpodid ciliate, which is why the somatic cilia are arranged in pairs (s. fig. 5 a). Apically there is a conspicuous tuft of elongated and curved cilia, which is typical for this species (s. fig. 2 f). The mouth opening is short and equipped with only 4 adoral membranelles. The contractile vacuole is located on the border to the posterior third (s. fig. 2 c). The spherical macronucleus lies centrally (s. fig. 2 e), whereby the micronucleus is difficult to recognize, it lies within a membrane which surrounds the macronucleus (s. fig. 5 b).

Cyrtolophosis mucicola can be confused with the similar species Cyrtolophosis elongata. However, the latter has a contractile vacuole, which is terminal.