408 UTRICULARIA NEGI &CTA. Cuar. XVIL 
spread analogy, this would have rendered them more 
sensitive to irritation, or would by itself have excited 
movement; but no effect was produced. We may, 
therefore, conclude that animals enter merely by 
forcing their way through the slit-like orifice; their 
heads serving as a wedge. But I am surprised that 
such small and weak creatures as are often captured 
(for instance, the nauplius of a crustacean, and a tardi- 
grade) should be strong enough to act in this manner, 
seeing that it was difficult to push in one end of a 
bit of a hair 4 of an inch in length. Nevertheless, 
it is certain that weak and small creatures do enter, 
and Mrs, Treat, of New Jersey, has been more suc- 
cessful than any other observer, and has often wit- 
nessed in the case of Utricularia clandestina the 
whole process.* She saw a tardigrade slowly walk- 
ing round a bladder, as if reconnoitring; at last it 
crawled into the depression where the valve lies, and 
then easily entered. She also witnessed the entrap- 
ment of various minute crustaceans. Cypris “was 
“quite wary, but nevertheless was often caught. 
“ Coming to the entrance of a bladder, it would some- 
“times pause a moment, and then dash away; at 
“ other times it would come close up, and even ven- 
“ture part of the way into the entrance and back out 
“as if afraid. Another, more heedless, would open 
“ the door and walk in; but it was no sooner in than 
“it manifested alarm, drew in its feet and antenna, 
and closed its shell.” Larvae, apparently of gnats, 
when “feeding near the entrance, are pretty certain 
“+¢orun their heads into the net, whence there is no 
“retreat. A large larva is sometimes three or four 
“hours in being swallowed, the process bringing ta 
* «New York Tribume, reprinted in the ‘Gard. Chron.’ 1875, p. 303 
