164 Transactions of the Society. 



in the other Floscules, as large animalcules, such as Ko^Joda, 

 Paramecia, and even free-swimming rotifers will often fall victims 

 to this big burly and voracious creature. It has an insatiable 

 appetite : I have frequently seen the young of CEcistes pilula and 

 CB. umbella devoured by it, the young of the large rotifers making 

 even less resistance than the infusoria. 



At first I thought that F. amhigua was wholly carnivorous, as 

 I had seen it reject vegetable organisms, but I have since often 

 seen it devour young Volvox glohator. 



When once it has got a victim within its great mouth-funnel 

 there is no possibility of its making its escape, although with a full 

 stomach F. amhigua seems inclined to play with its prey as a cat 

 would with a mouse, allowing it to swim about within the funnel 

 and to try to escape over the margin. Whenever the animalcule 

 approaches the setigerons rim a sharp stroke from one or more setae 

 drives it back into the funnel. 



I have seen the attempt to escape repeated again and again, 

 but always with the same result ; in no single instance have I ever 

 witnessed the escape of a captive. No one would credit the voracity 

 of this Floscule who had not watched it. I have seen one eat in 

 half-an-hour no less than twenty-four live infusoria of various sizes ; 

 it only gets a rotifer or a young Volvox now and then as a change 

 of diet. 



F. anibigua is by no means a delicate rotifer, for it can be kept 

 in a live-trough in good health with very little trouble during the 

 whole period of its life by merely furnishing it with a few drops of 

 water from an aquarium daily. 



It deposits from two to five female eggs, which take about 

 six or seven days to hatch. The young female when hatched is 

 furnished vith very delicate vibratile cilia on the head, and with 

 two red eye-spots. The frontal lobes are entirely absent. Pro- 

 pelled by the frontal wreath of cilia the young Floscule swims 

 rapidly and gracefully through the water for about two or three hours, 

 poking into corners and crannies in quest of a fitting place of 

 abode. 



It selects for its future residence either the axil of the plant 

 or the concave side of a leaf. It seems to prefer an ambush to an 

 exposed spot, for I have never met with it on the point of a leaf. 

 The young Floscule when first fixed on the leaf is so like a young 

 Stentor that it might easily be mistaken for one ; but in a short 

 time a collar begins to develope immediately under the wreath of 

 frontal cilia; and, as it rises above the wreath, the lobes develope 

 from the collar, increasing in size as the animal grows. If fed well, 

 the young animal arrives at maturity about the twenty- fourth or 

 twenty-fifth day, and will then deposit eggs, but it never ceases to 

 increase in size till shortly before its death. Its whole lifetime in a 



