[3] The best-known species are D. cylindricum and D. divergens, which come to the attention of humans annually due to transient blooms in the photic zone of temperate lakes and ponds.

Though most commonly found in freshwater lakes and ponds, Dinobryon have also been documented flourishing in lotic and estuarine habitats.

[5] Large blooms of Dinobryon are documented most commonly in oligo- to meso- trophic temperate lakes and ponds, though they have also been observed in eutrophic waters.

The blooms are initiated from resting siliceous spores called statospores that lay dormant on the lake bottom through the winter.

Increased spring insolation causes them to germinate, producing amoeboid cells that generate two flagella and encase themselves in a vase-like cellulosic lorica.