EOTIFERS 



glassy cuticle of the 

 trunk, and the tail is 

 freely movable and is 

 often lashed from side 

 to side with sudden 

 jerks. 



Rotifers are re- 

 markable in two 

 respects. First, the 

 female lays two kinds 

 of eggs, — summer 

 Qggs and winter eggs. 

 The former have thin 

 shells, and the latter 

 thick shells which pro- 

 tect them from the 

 cold. The second re- 

 markable characteris- 

 tic is, that the bodies 

 of rotifers will shrivel 

 and dry up during 

 a drouth, but when 

 again brought into 

 the presence of mois- 

 ture, even after three 

 or four years, will re- 

 vive. This accounts 

 for the sudden ap- 

 pearance, after a rain, 

 of rotifers in ditches 

 that have been dry 

 for months. 



Fig. 38. — A rotifer ; c, troohal disk ; 

 tr, trunk; t, tail. 



