STAR-LIKE AXnLlLS. 117 



irksome, is abandoned, and attention is given only 

 now and then. Suddenly a total change in the 

 aspect of affairs is observed. The dull and shiny 

 patches have alike disappeared, and in their place 

 are found the beautiful and more perfectly de- 

 veloped structure shown in Fig. 22 A. 



This creature (Podoplirya quadripartita) consists 

 of a bright, shining, four-cornered* star-like body 

 with radiating tentacles, perched on a crystalline 

 pedestal or footstalk, and attached to some other 

 body, usually to that on which it was previously 

 fixed ; but occasionally they are found on the shells 

 of small mollusca i.e., water-snails where they 

 are ever getting the advantages of locomotion and 

 change without any effort of their own, or they are 

 found on branches of the arborescent forms of other 

 infusorial life. In this latter position they have played 

 such pranks on the observers as to have deceived 

 some of the most eminent naturalists, and were the 

 primal cause of their own temporary expulsion from 

 the systematic records. For they planted their own 

 bodies in such an ingenious manner on similar 



* They are not always quadrate or four-cornered, but vary iu 

 this as in all else. 



