Mniobia russeola (Zelinka, 1891) is a microscopic invertebrate belonging to the rotifers, a group of tiny aquatic animals known for their wheel-like ciliated feeding structures.
It sits within the order Bdelloidea and family Philodinidae, in the class Eurotatoria of the phylum Rotifera, under the kingdom Animalia.
As one of the many bdelloid rotifer species, Mniobia russeola represents the fine-grained diversity hidden within a group of animals too small to see without a microscope, yet found across a wide range of freshwater and moist habitats worldwide.
Distribution and Habitat
Records of Mniobia russeola come from scattered presence observations rather than a mapped, continuous range, so the exact extent of where this species lives remains poorly defined.
Monthly observation data show sightings concentrated in March and April, with nine records in April and three in March, a handful of isolated records in July and October, and no reported observations in the remaining months.
This pattern may reflect when the species is more often detected or when sampling effort is higher, rather than true seasonal absence, since GBIF occurrence counts are presence observations only and do not measure abundance, population size, or a complete native range. Any suggestion of a spring peak in detections should therefore be treated with caution rather than as a definitive seasonal pattern.
Ecology and classification
Classification
- Phylum
- Rotifera
- Class
- Eurotatoria
- Order
- Bdelloidea
- Family
- Philodinidae
- Genus
- Mniobia
- Species
- Mniobia russeola