Closeup on Stentor

Visible in this photomicrograph is the cytostome of the Stentor. The cytostome, surrounded by a ring of oral cilia, channels food into the cytopharynx, where food vacuoles filled with water and food break off. The food vacuoles, called a phagosome, combine with digestive enzyme-containing organelles called lysosomes. Lysosomes combine with the phagosome to form a phagolysosome, in which the food or food particle is digested.