io8 



HA RD WICKE 'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



the recess. The suctorial symptoms are the same as 

 occur in the ova of Brachionus previous to the 

 bursting of the covering. 



The ciha keep up a continual lashing ; the little 

 creature is thoroughly rolled up within itself, tail to its 

 head; the shapes it takes are very various, owing 

 to the constrictions which take place, and nothing can 

 be discerned of those semicircular toothed arms which 

 make the Stephanoceros Eichornii such a beautiful 



rolling and dodging about, and performing some 

 curious gymnastic exercises — as if overwhelmed with 

 joy, and scarcely knowing how to appreciate the 

 seemingly many pleasures that lay before it — it 

 assumed the vermiform shape that one sees figured in 

 Pritchard's " Infusoria," plate 37, fig. 4. This seems 

 to be the larval state, for there is not the remotest 

 sign of tentacles or maxillary apparatus. It gradually 

 swells and undergoes the same convulsive jerks that 



Fig. 78. 



Fig. 80. 



Fig. 8r. 



Fig. 76. — Sicfhanoceros Eichornii, mag. 



creature amongst animalcules. It took nearly fifty-six 

 hours for the egg to hatch. On making its escape from 

 the egg the creature bursts its covering by a sudden 

 jerk of the posterior portion of the body, much re- 

 sembling the jumping action of the shrimp ; the 

 whole surface of the shelly covering seeming, by 

 the aid of the binocular, to be forced upwards, and 

 the little one floats out into its world of water (fig. 

 ']']). This was entirely a new aspect to me, for, after 



one sees as it approaches maturity in the ovum. It 

 took up its abode close to the fringe of a leaf, and 

 during the night, that is to say, between one and eight 

 in the morning, the body had taken the form as seen 

 in the adult Stephanoceros Eichornii, minus the arms 

 (fig. 78). The ciliary fringe, which is so conspicuous 

 during the first and second stage, had entirely disap- 

 peared J the creature lay perfectly quiescent in a very 

 transparent cell which it had formed round itself. It 

 had attached itself by its tail to some Conferva ; and 

 here I would offer a few remarks on the "cell." I 

 am sorry to do so, but I must most decidedly disagree 

 with the remarks made by Pritchard on the cell of the 

 Stephanoceros Eichornii, viz., " The cell apparently is 

 not tubular, but a solid gelatinous mass enveloiDes the 

 animal as high up as the base of the rotary arms." 

 This new cell came uj^ as far as the posterior portion of 

 the body, and I was able to look down it. This was 

 the " first stage " of the cell ; it was gradually built up 

 in layers, and this, in my opinion, explains the cause 

 of the ribs of the cell (fig. 76, c). It is perfectly hollow, 

 there is no attachment between the cell and the 

 creature, and I have no hesitation in saying that it is 

 quite as independent of its cell as Melicerta ringens is 



