I regularly find Enchelys vestita in the Simmelried. I usually find the specimens in the uppermost layer of mud. In January 2000 I was able to observe a mass development, with about 10 specimens per milliliter. Many specimens of Ileonema simplex were also found in the same sample.

The only available description and drawing of Enchelys vestita is by Kahl (1930). In my opinion, his drawing is not very informative, because he drew the body quite compact and because he describes and draws the macronucleus as elongated oval. In fact, the macronucleus in this species is subject to a certain amount of variation, but it is usually clearly kidney-shaped (s. figs. 1 a, 6 and 7). Sometimes the macronucleus is also elongated C-shaped or trilobed (s. fig. 2 b), but the ends are always thickened. Another important chracteristic is the mucilaginous layer covering the pellicle. It appears granulated and sometimes “scaly” due to the embedded lepidosomes (s. fig. 5).

Kahl gives a length of about 25 µm for the extrusomes. However, I was able to observe that there are at least two types of extrusomes arranged in the oral bulge of Enchelys vestita. The shorter ones are 5–6 µm long rods which are slightly curved. The longer extrusomes (which Kahl probably meant) are straight and thin rods, but according to my measurements they are 30–40 µm long (s. fig. 3).

In many specimens of Enchelys vestita I observed coccal algae in the food vacuoles (s. figs. 4 and 7). Since all algae were of the same type, it is possible that ciliates with symbiotic algae are among the prey organisms of Enchelys vestita.

Enchelys vestita is only slightly contractile. The contraction is also not as fast as in the genus Spirostomum, for example. The maximum contraction is about 20 % of the body length.

When I had the opportunity to measure several specimens in January 2000, I recorded some morphometric data of Enchelys vestita (s. tabl. 1).

Table 1: Morphometric data an Enchelys vestita.