478 



ROTIFERA: STEPHANOCEROS ; FLOSCULARIA. 



Fig. 246. 



a certain general resemblance to the Vorticellince (§ 340) on the one 

 hand, and to Zoophytes (Chap, xi.) on the other. For they are 

 commonly found attached to the stems and leaves of aquatic 



plants, by a 

 long pedicle 

 or foot-stalk, 

 which bears a 

 somewhat bell- 

 shaped body ; 

 and in one of 

 the most beau- 

 tiful species, 

 the Stepliano- 

 ceros Eichornii (Fig. 246), 

 this body has five long ten- 

 tacles, beset with tufts of 

 short bristly cilia, reminding 

 us of the ciliated tentacles 

 of the Bryozoa (Chap, xiii.), 

 whilst the body seems to be 

 enclosed in a cylindrical cell, 

 resembling that of Hydrozoa 

 and Bryozoa. A comparison 

 of this with other forms, 

 however, shows that these 

 tentacles are only exten- 

 sions of the ciliated lobes 

 which are common to all the 

 members of these families; 

 and the so-called 'cell' is 

 not formed by a thickening 

 and separation of the outer 

 tegument ; but by a gela- 

 tinous secretion from it ; so 

 that as the rest of the 

 organization is essentially 

 conformable to the Rotiferous 

 type, no such passage is 

 really established by this 

 animal towards other groups, 

 as it is commonly supposed 

 to form. — In one respect 

 Floscularia is still more 

 aberrant; for the long bristly 

 filaments, which its lobes are beset with, are not capable of 

 rhythmical vibration. The true representative of the 'wheels' of 

 other Rotifera is a ciliated band that may be detected around the 

 entrance of the (Esophageal funnel.— The body of Melicerta is 



Stephanoceros Eichoiiiii. 



