-fera

Also ‑ifera.

Animal orders or phyla.

Modern Latin, the neuter plural of ferre, to bear.

Though the ending from the Latin source is ‑fera, examples all contain the linking vowel ‑i‑: Foraminifera (Latin foramen, an opening or passage), an order of single-celled planktonic animals; Rotifera (Latin rota, wheel), a phylum of minute aquatic animals with a characteristic wheel-like ciliated organ used in swimming and feeding; and Loricifera (Latin lorica, breastplate), a minor phylum of minute marine invertebrates, resembling rotifers and living in gravel.