64 THE ROTIFERA. 
the floccose attached to growing Nitella. It forms a charming object under reflected 
sunlight. The body is colourless, and sparkling as a vase of glass, as are some of the 
viscera. An advanced egg is conspicuously white; and so is the head of the mastax; 
the eye comes out like a ruby; the stomach, full of food, is richly brown, or perhaps 
grass-green ; and the rotating front is enveloped in a cloud of pale cobalt blue. Like 
its neighbours, it is lively in movement.—P.H.G.] 
Length. Of body, ;}, inch; of toe, ;15 inch; total, .; inch. Habitat. Pools near 
London; Birmingham (P.H.G.). 
M. stynaTa, Gosse. 
(Pl. XX. fig. 6.) 
Monocerca stylata . . : Gosse, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. Sept. 1851, p. 199. 
[SP. CH. Body irregularly oval; head short ; lorica flexible, puckered in contrac- 
tion, not ridged ; toe less than half as long as body-and-head, simple, with no sub- 
styles. 
In several respects this nimble little species resembles the preceding; the lorica 
(even more flexible and skin-like) opens wide in front to emit the head, and closes with 
many folds or puckers, converging toa blunt point. The form is more irregular than 
in any other species, being plump and gibbous ; the skin, which is so flexible as scarcely 
to be called a lorica, is often drawn in, or protruded in angles, which vary the shape. 
The foot-bulb is enormous, usually inclosed within the body; to this is jointed the toe, 
a taper acute spine, nearly straight, without a swollen base, and without sub-styles. 
The brain is thick and moderately long, carrying a large eye on the middle of its 
dorsal surface, protuberant as a wart. No antenna has been observed. The protruded 
head is short, set with cilia, strong and bristle-like, around the margin. The jaws have 
the asymmetric character already noticed; the one malleus is very long and simply 
bowed. As in bicornis, there is a long distinct rectum, to which are attached two 
clobular eea, larger than the gastric glands above. ‘There is a small contractile 
vesicle. The cloaca is marked by a depression. 
Under strong lateral pressure, a very complicated system of muscular bands is seen 
(6b), mostly transverse, but many irregularly diagonal. I copied them with great care. 
I first obtained this species from a garden reservoir near London, m 1850. Its 
minuteness and its figure, its short foot and great red eye, may cause it to be mistaken 
for an Anur@a, which it resembles in its swift, headlong, obliquely-revolving motion. 
Specimens in a phial may be detected with a pocket lens, rapidly urging their way, 
generally in a perpendicular direction, upwards or downwards, always with this reyoly- 
ing action. When alarmed, they suddenly increase their speed, shooting across the field 
of view with such a fleetness that it is difficult to keep them in sight.—P.H.G.] 
Length. Of body, s!},5 inch; including toe, ;}, inch. Habitat. South London; 
Hampstead Heath ; Stapleton Park, Yorkshire; Birmingham (P.H.G.). 
Genus RATTULUS, Ehrenberg. 
[GEN. CH. Body cylindric, curved ; lorica smooth, (usually) without a ridge ; toes 
two, decurved, symmetric. 
The Notommata tigris of Ehrenberg, with its rounded body, thickest before, its 
general curvature, and its two coequal toes, continuing the curve of the body, may be 
considered the type of this genus, which manifestly, however, forms a connecting link 
with the Notommatade, through Proales tigridia. The genus is a very natural one, 
inseparable, notwithstanding some diversities, with a common facies readily apparent to 
the skilled observer.—P.H.G.] 
