150 HIDDEN BEAUTIES OF NATURE 



In fig. 42 we see the transparent shells of four 

 other rhizopods, from three of which the jelly-specks 

 are protruding, while in the one remaining the crea- 

 ture is undergoing a change, and is drawn up into the 

 shape of a sphere. These four forms are known as 

 Hyalosphenia papilio (Gr. hualos, crystal ; sphen, a 

 wedge). We shall have no trouble with the second 

 part of its name, if we know anything of butterflies. 

 These creatures range in width from the four 

 hundred and fiftieth of an inch up to the two 

 hundred and fiftieth, and are amongst the greatest 

 of swamp water wonders. They ^re always tinted 

 yellow, and from their excessive beauty and their 

 delicate transparency, their bright colours and lovely 

 forms, as they move among the leaves of the sphag- 

 num, desmids, and diatoms, they have suggested the 

 idea of butterflies hovering among flowers, hence the 

 name papilio. An observer of great experience, who 

 has seen thousands of' specimens from different 

 localities, in mountainous regions, and nearly at the 

 sea level, states that they undergo but little change 

 that a remarkable uniformity is maintained in 

 their size, shape, and constitution, that he has never 

 seen a shell positively colourless, and not one in 

 which the sarcode was devoid of corpuscles coloured 

 with the green colouring matter of plants and lower 

 forms of animal life known as chlorophyll. The 

 life-history of this creature is not known. The 

 Hyalosphenia papilio, like the previously described 

 fresh- water rhizopods, is always found in marshy 



