INFUSORIAL ANIMALCULES. 



41 



TRUMPET ANIMALCULES, (Stentors.) This division of the family of the Bell- 

 shaped Infusoria receives its name from its peculiar form, which resembles that 

 of a trumpet. Unlike most of the 

 race to which it belongs, the Stentor is 

 destitute of a stalk, and attaches itself 

 by the lower extremity, in the manner 

 of a leech, to the different substances 

 it meets with in the water. Its whole 

 body is covered with cilia, and a spiral 

 wreath of these organs is seen sur 

 rounding the expanded mouth. By 

 the aid of these members the Stentor 

 moves swiftly through the water, and 

 at the same time sweeps within its 

 grasp the various living atoms upon 

 which it preys. This creature is very 

 voracious and devours great quanti 

 ties of monads, wheel-animals, and 

 other Infusoria. These are frequent 

 ly found within its stomachs, which 

 are arranged like the beads of a neck 

 lace. This chain of stomachs proceed 

 ing from the mouth, traverses the body 

 of the Stentor in the direction of its 

 length, and returning, unites with it in 

 a spiral-shaped cavity. They increase 

 by self-division, either lengthwise or 

 obliquely, and also from eggs which 

 vary in color in different kinds. There 

 are several species of the Trumpet-ani 

 malcules, which are dissimilar both in 

 size and color. Some of them are 

 sufficiently large to be detected by the naked eye, but the microscope is needed 

 for their full examination. Their colors are blue, vermilion, green, yellow, and 

 brown. In figure 53, a group of a species, termed the Many-shaped Stentor is 

 delineated, adhering to a stick. Four individuals are here seen, gracefully en 

 twined together in various attitudes and in different states of expansion. In the 

 upper figures, the distended mouth encircled with its spiral wreath of cilia is 

 fully displayed, and numerous cilia are likewise seen covering the surface of the 

 body, but appearing most thickly near its lower extremity, by which the ani 

 malcule has anchored itself to the sunken spray. In the remainder of the group 

 the mouths of the animalcules are turned from view, but the position of these 

 orifices is marked by the surrounding crowns of oilia. These animalcules are of 

 a beautiful green hue, and vary in length from one-twenty -fourth io one-one kun- 



