Twelve New Species of Botifera. By P. H. Gosse. 363 



the creature crawls about the weeds, the edges turned up slightly ; while 

 the sides of the lorica end ventrally in straight lines, produced behind 

 into small obtuse points. The integument appears sometimes quite 

 flexible. The bluff rounded head, clothed with simple ciha, is sur- 

 rounded by a prominent ring or collar, not always observable. An 

 occipital brain seems destitute of any eye-spot. The toes are delicately 

 attenuated to long points, which, more generis, are often thrown back, 

 though the points are decurved. 



The little animal is active and restless, moderately swift in swimming, 

 with frequent augmentations of speed, sudden and sustained. It soon 

 dies in a live -box ; and, in dying, usually contracts itself into a globular 

 form. Sometimes it spins swiftly round and round, in a circle of which 

 the toe-tips are the centre. I have examined some eight or ten 

 specimens, all in water sent by Mr. Hood from his aquarium at Dundee. 

 (Fig. 4.) 



5. Monostyla mollis. Body oblong, sub-cylindric, clothed with a 

 soft, flexible, corrugated skin, instead of a lorica : toe rod-shaped, short, 

 thick; claw obscurely two-shouldered. Length 1/250 to 1/200 in. 

 Lacustrine. 



I venture to claim specific rank for this form, which has the same 

 relation to Monostyla as D.jiexilis has to Distyla and CatJiypna. That 

 both are immature conditions would be a natural conclusion, but that, so 

 far as my experience goes, all Loricate Eotifera are hatched with the 

 lorica already developed. And that such is the case with Monostyla 

 in particular, the following note will show. The facts, apart from their 

 relation to this question, may be of interest. 



In August 1885, an egg of M. corniiia, in my live-box, displayed the 

 young moving vigorously within the hyaline egg-shell, slowly revolving. 

 The lorica was already well defined, evidently without folds, though 

 expansile in retraction, distinctly broad-oval in outline, smooth and 

 rotund when viewed lengthwise. The imprisoned animal grew much 

 larger, so that it almost filled the long diameter of the shell, but not 

 nearly its short diameter. Its length was now 1/400 in. 



After I had watched for about an hour, during which its restless 

 motions had nearly ceased, the frontal ciUa were seen vibrating at the 

 very edge, and in a moment more outside the edge, of the shell. For 

 an instant it recoiled; but returned again and again to the effort, at 

 each time protruding more and more. At length it pushed fully half out, 

 then hung a moment, as if exhausted. Now another vigorous lashing 

 of the cilia, and out it is bodily, yet still adhering to the shell by the 

 glutinous toe-point, whereby it now drags the shell hither and thither. 

 At last it is quite free, evidently ovate, stiff and smooth, as the normal 

 adult. 



These facts, which were recorded during the actual process, seem 

 sufficient to show that, in this Family at least, the chitinous consolidation 

 of the lorica is attained before birth. And the corollary follows, that, in 

 D.jiexilis and M. mollis we have examples of illoricate condition in a 

 loricate family, analogous to Mastigocerca stylata in the Battulidse. 



I have examined many specimens from various waters. In one 

 case the animal contracted to a cordiform outline a, as if possessing a 



2 B 2 



