346 ZOOLOGY SECT. 



Segmentation is total and approximately equal. The form of 

 the free-swimming larva varies considerably, but in most there is a 

 circular band with very long cilia, the corona, which may represent 

 the tentacular crown of the adult ; this divides the surface into 

 two regions oral and aboral. The larva may or may not be 

 provided with a digestive canal. The aboral portion of the body 

 presents a ciliated retractile disc or calotte, which subsequently 

 becomes a closed sac destined to give origin to the primary zooid 

 of the colony ; on the oral side is the sucker by which the larva 

 afterwards becomes fixed. By a metamorphosis similar to that 

 which has been described in the case of Bugula (p. 338), a primary 

 zocecium with a primary zooid is developed from the previously 

 free ciliated larva. In Membranipora, which belongs to the Cheilo- 

 stomata, and in several genera of Ctenostomata, the larva (called 

 Cyphonautes when it was supposed to be an adult animal) is laterally 

 compressed, with a bivalve shell. In the Cyclostomata the larva 

 is barrel-shaped, with the mouth at one end, and at the other a 

 prominence corresponding to the retractile disc. In the 

 Phylactolaemata the larva is in the form of a ciliated hollow cyst 

 from which the colony is formed by gemmation. A special form 

 of asexual multiplication by means of bodies termed statoblasts 

 (Fig. 285, stato) is observable in the Phylactolsemata. The 

 statoblasts are internal buds formed from the funiculus and 

 enclosed in a chitinous shell ; they are set free eventually by the 

 death and decay of the parent colony, and each gives rise to a small 

 zooid which fixes itself and develops into a colony. 



Ethology and Distribution. None of the Ectoprocta are 

 parasites in the strict sense of the term, but very many of them 

 live in intimate association with other organisms, often growing 

 over and through them so as to form with them one complex 

 structure. Certain genera are able by some means to excavate 

 minute burrows in the shells of bivalves. 



The majority of Ectoprocta are marine ; but all the Phylacto- 

 laemata, together with Paludicella of the Ctenostomata, are in- 

 habitants of fresh water. The fresh-water forms inhabit both 

 running and stagnant waters ; they occur at all elevations and 

 are represented in all the great regions of the earth's surface. 

 The marine forms are most abundant at moderate depths ; 

 but representatives of the group have been dredged from as 

 great a depth as over 3,000 fathoms. In certain localities the 

 larger kinds grow in great luxuriance, so as to form miniature 

 forests. 



Geologically the Ectoprocta are a very ancient group, being 

 represented in the Cambrian and later Palaeozoic formations by 

 forms which appear to have belonged mainly, if not exclusively, 

 to the Cyclostomata. In the later formations of the Mesozoic period 

 the Cheilostomata are also abundantly represented, and in the 



