Bell (cell body)The body of the cell, shaped like an upside-down bell. The mouth is at its wide end and the stalk at its narrow end.
CiliaA ring of cilia round the mouth end. Their beating makes a whirlpool that draws food toward the mouth.
MacronucleusA long nucleus bent into a curve like a horseshoe. It is the larger of the two nuclei.
MicronucleusA small round nucleus that lies beside the macronucleus.
Contractile vacuoleA clear sac that fills with fluid and then empties it out. It lies near the gullet.
Food vacuolesSmall sacs of food taken in through the gullet. They form at its inner end and then drift through the cell.
GulletA tube that carries food from the mouth into the cell. Food vacuoles form at its inner end.
PeristomeThe thickened rim round the mouth end of the bell. The mouth lies between it and the disc.
Peristomial discA raised lid in the middle of the mouth end. A band of cilia runs round its edge.
The stalk 3
StalkA long stalk that fastens the bell to a surface. It can coil up like a spring.
SpasmonemeA contractile thread that runs the length of the stalk. When it shortens, the stalk coils up.
Coiled stalkThe stalk drawn up like a coil spring. It pulls the bell toward the surface.
How this list was compiled: Every name was checked on 2026-10-03 and kept only where two independent sources use it for Vorticella. (1) Wikipedia, text only: Vorticella, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorticella . (2) R. W. Hegner, College Zoology (1912), public domain, https://archive.org/details/collegezoology00hegnrich . (3) T. J. Parker and W. A. Haswell, A Text-book of Zoology, volume 1 (1910), public domain, https://archive.org/details/textbookofzoolog00park . (4) H. B. Ward and G. C. Whipple, Fresh-water Biology (1918), public domain, https://archive.org/details/freshwaterbiolog00ward . (5) S. Ryu and others, Vorticella: A Protozoan for Bio-Inspired Engineering, Micromachines 8 (2016), an open-access review read through Europe PMC, https://europepmc.org/article/PMC/PMC6189993 . Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-03 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work
How it works
Vorticella is a single cell shaped like a bell, fixed to a surface by a long stalk. The bell shows the cell from the side. The stalk shows it stretched out and coiled.
Read the full guide
The bell
The wide end is the mouth end. The peristome is its thick rim, the peristomial disc rises inside the rim, and cilia stand in a ring round both. The gullet leads from the mouth into the cell, where food vacuoles form. The long curved band is the macronucleus, with the small micronucleus beside it.
The stalk
A thread called the spasmoneme runs inside the stalk. When the thread shortens, the stalk coils like a spring and pulls the bell down toward the surface.
For a simple labeled Vorticella, start with five names: bell, cilia, stalk, macronucleus and contractile vacuole.
Questions and answers
What are the parts of a Vorticella?
A bell-shaped cell body and a stalk. The bell carries a ring of cilia, the peristome and its disc, a gullet, food vacuoles, a curved macronucleus, a micronucleus and a contractile vacuole. The stalk holds a contractile thread, the spasmoneme.
Why does the stalk of a Vorticella coil?
A contractile thread, the spasmoneme, runs the length of the stalk as a helix. When it shortens, it draws the stalk into a coil like a spring, and the bell is pulled toward the surface it is fixed to.
How does a Vorticella feed?
The cilia round the mouth end beat and make a whirlpool in the water. The current carries bacteria and other small particles to the mouth and down the gullet, where they are packed into food vacuoles.
Is a Vorticella one cell?
Yes. The bell and its stalk are a single cell. Vorticella is a ciliate, like Paramecium, with a large macronucleus and a small micronucleus.