Stein, 1859
Body characteristically inverted bell- or goblet-shaped or conical-cylindrical. Conspicuous oral ciliature winding counterclockwise at apical pole. With scopula and prominent holdfast derivatives (usually contractile stalk or complex adhesive disc) at antapical pole. Somatic ciliature reduced to aboral ciliary wreath; contractile vacuole empties into ciliated vestibulum (infundibulum). Stomatogenesis buccokinetal, with plane of fission parallel to main body axis. Dimorphism (with migratory swarmer stage), colonies, loricae or thecae, and cysts common in life cycle of many species. Conjugation ("total") invariably involves fusion of a micro- with a macroconjugant. Very widespread in aquatic habitats, species generally free-living or occurring as symphorionts on diverse hosts, but some commensals or parasites on or in other organisms.
Suborder Sessilina
Family Vorticellidae