416 



EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



living animal. This was the more remarkable, as there 

 was plenty of water. It looked like suicide, — a spon- 

 taneous choosing of death rather than hopeless captivity. 

 Common as these Stylonychke are, and abundant be- 

 yond all calculation, where they do occur, from their 

 tendency to self-division, they are not so universally 

 met with as their cousins, of the genus Euplotes. These 

 are still more highly organised, and will please you by 

 their activity and sprightly intelligence, I am sure. Here 

 are several individuals in the live-box at this moment. 



They differ from the Stylonychice, in having the soft 

 body covered with a plate of crystal mail, hard and 

 inflexible, much like the shield of a Tortoise. Several 

 species have this glassy shield marked with delicate lines 

 running lengthwise ; sometimes in the form of parallel 

 ridges, as in a little species found in infusions (perhaps 

 E. char on), at others forming rows of minute round knobs, 

 as E. truncatus, the species now before us. The shield is 

 ample, considerably overlapping the soft body ; it rises 



into an arched form in 

 the centre ; and is more 

 or less round or oval. 

 The mouth is oblique, 

 and extends a long way 

 clown the under surface ; 

 it is set with strong and 

 fine cilia, which also 

 spread over the front. 

 The orgai, r of motion 

 are, as before, long styles, pointed and rather stiff pro- 

 cesses, which project from beneath the shell backwards 

 and downwards, and soft hook-like uncini, which are set 

 chiefly near the fore part of the inferior surface. In the 

 species before us these are about six or seven in number, 

 but in E. char on they are more numerous. The twinkling 

 rapidity with which these little feet are applied to the 



EUPLOTES. 



