The Foettingeriidae are a family of apostome ciliates of the order Apostomatida. Like other apostomes, they are symbiotic with Crustacea, and live in microbial cysts on their host's exoskeleton for most of their life. They excyst, or leave their cysts, when their hosts molt their exoskeleton in order to feed on the exuvial fluids trapped in their host's molted exoskeleton.
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0