64 THE ROTIFEKA. 



tlic floccose attached to growing Nitclla. It forms a cliarniing object under reflected 

 sunlight. The bodj- is colourless, and sparkling as a vase of glass, as are some of the 

 viscera. Aii 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-gi'een ; 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, y|^ inch ; total, ^'j inch. Habitat. Pools near 

 London; Birmuigham (P.H.G.). 



M. STYLATA, GoSSe. 



(PI. XX. fig. 6.) 

 Monoccrca sttjlata . . . Gosse, Ann. ajid Mag. Nat. Hist. Sept. 1851, p. 199. 



[SP.cn. "Body irregularly oval ; head s/iori; \oricz, flexible, inickercd in contrac- 

 tion, not ridijcd ; t03 less than half as long as hody-and-hcad, simijle, tvith no sub- 

 styles. 



In several respects this nimble little species resembles the precedmg; the lorica 

 (even more flexible and skin-likel opens wide in front to emit the head, and closes with 

 many folds or puckers, converging to a blunt point. The form is more irregular than 

 in an}' other species, being plump and gibbous ; the skm, which is so flexible as scarcely 

 to be called a lorica, is often drawn m, or protruded in angles, which vary the shape. 

 The foot-bulb is enormous, usually inclosed within the body ; to this is jomted 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, aroimd the margin. The jaws have 

 the asymmetric character already noticed ; the one malleus is very long and simply 

 bowed. As in hicornis, there is a long distinct rectum, to which are attached two 

 globular cseca, larger than the gastric glands above. There is a small contractUe 

 vesicle. The cloaca is marked by a depression. 



Under strong lateral pressure, a very complicated system of muscular bands is seen 

 (66), 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 

 muiuteness and its figure, its short foot and great red eye, may cause it to be mistaken 

 for an Anurcea, which it resembles in its swift, headlong, obliquely-revolving motion. 

 Specimens in a phial may be detected with a pocket leus, rapidly urging their way, 

 generally in a perpendicular direction, upwards or downwards, always with this revolv- 

 ing action. When alarmed, they suddenly mcrease their speed, shooting across the field 

 of view with such a fleetuess that it is difficult to keep them m sight.— P.H.G.] 



Length. Of body, jSj; inch; including toe, ~^]^, inch. Habitat. South Loudon; 

 liampstead Heath ; Stapletou Park, Yorkshire ; Birmmgham (P.H.G.). 



Genus EATTULUS, Ehrcnherg. 



[GEN. CH. Body cylindric, curved ; lorica smooth, [iisnalbj) tcithout 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 bo 

 considered the type of this genus, which manifestly, however, forms a connecting link 

 with the Notommatadif, through Proales tigridia. The genus is a very natural one, 

 inseparable, notw^ithstand:ug some diversities, with a common facies readily apparent to 

 the skilled observer. — P.H.G.] 



