CHAPTER VI. 



Family II. MELICERTAD.E. 



Corona iiot produced into setigerous lobes ; buccal orifice lateral ; ciliary wreath a, 

 viarginal continuous curve, bent on itself at the dorsal ' surface, so as to encircle the 

 corona ttvice, with the buccal orifice between its ^tjyper and lower curves, and having also 

 a dorsal gap between its points offlexiore ; trophi malleo-ramate. 



The Meliccrtadm are at once distinguished from the Flosculariada by the difference 

 of the corona, and the unsymmetrical position of the buccal orifice. In all the genera 

 the corona bears two parallel wreaths of cilia, the upper of which frequently presents tbe 

 appearance of a revolving wheel. The family contains seven genera, which differ from eacli 

 other mainly in their coronfe, tubes, and habits ; their internal structure being so much 

 alike, that it has been proposed, more than once to reduce the seven genera to two. 



There is no more interesting family. It contains animals that build their own tubes, 

 pellet by pellet ; and that themselves form these pellets, either out of external materials, 

 moulded in hollows of their own bodies, or out of their owii freces. All have social 

 instincts : some rearing their tubes, to the fourth and fifth generation, on those of their 

 ancestors, or forming dense clusters on tlic stems of water-plants; and others (fixed 

 forms only in a sort of Parliamentary sense) adliering to each other by their posterior 

 extremities, and forming spherical clusters that roll unceasingly through the waters of 

 still lakes and ponds. Most of them are hardy, and luckily all are prolific ; sometimes 

 so amazingly that the water-weeds are literally covered with their tubes, and the 

 fortunate finder can thus have in the small compass of a live box scores of animals of all 

 ages, and in every stage of growth. 



Genus MELICEETA. 



GEN. CH. Corona of four lobes ; dorsal gap wide ; dorsal antenna minute ; ventral 

 antennae obvious. 



Tlie tube varies in all llie four species, and its structure and formation will be 

 described under each. In all there is an inner gelatinous tube,''^ and in 31. ringens and 

 M. conifera there is also au outer tube, consisting of pellets of extraneous matter ; 

 while in 31. Janus the pellets are faecal. In 31. tubicolaria the outer tube is entirely 

 absent. 



The corona seen dorsally looks somewhat like a heart's-ease, with its four petals 

 lying in a plane ; but a side view shows that the two lower lobes are bent upwards, 

 so as to form an oblique angle with the upper lobes. A groove runs romid the 

 corona, on botli sides, just under its edge ; and on the ventral surface it is confluent 

 with the buccal funnel. There is a gap in tlie groove on the dorsal surface, so tliat 

 it does not entirely surround tlie corona. The edge of the corona is fringed with large 

 cilia, and the edges of the groove and buccal funnel with much smaller ones ; and they 



' In one instance (that of Conochilus volvo.v) read ventral for dorsal. 



' This inner tube can be seen in the young animal (PI. V. lig. Id and VI. VI. fit;. 1;/) before the 

 outer tube has been comjjlpted. 



