48 THE ROTIFEEA. 



the egg. There are three antennae in F. campanulata, F. coronetta, and !■'. Hoodii; and 

 no doubt the same three may with care bo found in the other species. There is one on each 

 side of the neck, and one on the median line near the middle of the dorsal lobe. The two 

 lateral antennse are very short tube-lite prominences each carrying a brush of divergent 

 setse; they are very apparent in F. coronetta (PI. II. fig. 2): the dorsal antenna is a 

 mere setigerous pimple. 1 The setse on the lobes act also as organs of touch, warning the 

 creature of the approach of anything detrimental to its delicate cup ; and whipping 

 back into it any animalcule that endeavours to escape from it. 



On the middle of the contractile collar, which is above the vestibule, and on the dorsal 

 side of it, there is a round projection facing the concavity of the ciliary wreath. It can 

 be easily seen in F. coronetta and F. Hoodii, and is probably an organ of taste, as it is 

 constantly thrust forward to meet any particle which is passing into the vestibule. A 

 very obvious and tongue-like organ holds a similar position, and acts in a similar way, in 

 Stephanoceros. 



The Reproductive System. — The ovary, with its clear spherical germs, and frequently 

 with an opaque egg in it, can be seen filling the greater part of the space between the 

 stomach and the ventral surface. No other portion of the apparatus has been made out, 

 owing no doubt to a habit that the Floscules have of contracting themselves sharply into 

 their tube when about to lay an egg. When laid, the eggs are ranged above one 

 another, between the foot and the tube. The ordinary number of female eggs is from 

 two to five ; though as many as eight or ten have been seen at once. The male eggs, 

 which are smaller, rounder, and more numerous, than the female, frequently amount to 

 as many as nine or ten, and have occasionally been seen in a cluster of eighteen or twenty 

 in the same tube. Both are inclosed in a delicate shell, which is left behind in the tube, 

 when the young Floscule is hatched. Dr. Weisse and Mr. Hood agree in assigning six 

 or seven days as the time from the extrusion of the egg to the birth of the young 

 animal. 



The Young Female. — "The infant female Floscule is a white cylindrical maggot 

 (PI. I. fig. 9c), blunt at the front end, with a central orifice, whence protrudes a short 

 brush of cilia ; but the margins arc capable of unfolding, when the cilia are seen to form 

 a whorl around the truncate summit, swiftly rotating. The margin soon begins to bud 

 forth the little knobs around which the cilia are gathered (PL I. fig. 9d) ; these 

 quickly increase in length, and the angular flower-like corona gradually forms. 

 Meanwhile the little creature, which was at first free, attaches itself by its hinder end. 

 and assumes the condition as well as the form of the parent." - 



Mr. Hood has observed in F. calva, that the young animal fixes itself two or three 

 hours after it has burst its shell, and soon begins to form its tube, which at first, rises 

 barely to half the height of the foot. By the time it is three clays old (PI. III. fig. 3a) 

 the tube has attained fair proportions. 



The same observer noticed that the lobes of the young F. ambigua began to 

 di velop from a collar under the ciliary wreath, and were at first merely a dorsal and 

 ventral lobe ; the latter with a small notch. In three or four days the notch deepened 

 and widened so that there were three lobes ; but it was not till the fifth or sixth day that 

 the rudiments of the small side lobes (the fourth and fifth) made their appearance. The 

 young Floscule arrived at maturity at the twenty-fourth or twenty-sixth day, but continued 

 to increase in size after it had deposited eggs : in fact, did not cease to grow till shortly 

 before its death. The whole lifetime, in a trough, was from forty to forty-six days. 



Captivity, however, affected the growth of the animals, even when carefully attended 

 to, and plentifully supplied with food. On one occasion, for instance, a large 

 F. campunulata ,' s inch long, from one of the Scotch lochs, was placed in a tank ; and 



1 Dr. Moxon (loc. cit.) first called attention to their existence in the Floscules. Ilerr Grenadier 

 (loc. cit.) mentions his having discovered the median antenna in F. proboscidea (F. campanulata) ; but 

 was unaware that Dr. Moxon had seen and described all three, five years before. 



- Mr. Gosse on F. campanulata. Popular Sci. Itcv. vol. i. 1H02, p. 100. 



