204 



LOWER INVERTEBRATES. 



There are also many other rotifers, which normally remain attached permanently 

 to some water plant or submerged stone. Among the attached foi-ms we may call 

 attention especially to the Floscularians. They are commonly found attached to the 

 stems and leaves of aquatic plants. The foot-stalk, bearing the bell-shaped body, is 

 very long. Dr. Carpenter describes thus one of the most beautiful species, Stephan- 

 ocera eichornii. The body has five long tentacles, beset with tufts of short bristly 



cilia, reminding one of the 

 ciliated tentacles of the 

 Bryozoa. The body and 

 foot-stalk are enclosed in 

 a cylindrical cell resem- 

 bling that of the Hydro- 

 zoa and Bryozoa. A com- 

 parison of this with other 

 forms, however, shows 

 that these tentacles are 

 only extensions of the 

 ciliated lobes which are 

 common to all the mem- 

 bers of these families. 

 The so-called cell is not 

 formed by a thickening 

 and separation of the 

 outer integument, but by 

 a glutinous secretion 

 from it, so that, as the 

 rest of the organization 

 is essentially conformable 

 to the rotiferous type, no 

 such passage is really es- 

 tablished by this animal 

 towards other groups as 

 it is commonlj' supposed 

 to form. In the allied 

 genus Melicerta the body 

 is protected by an artifi- 

 cial cell, constructed of 

 little pellets. Mr. Gosse, 

 who fortunately had an 

 opportunity of watching 

 the animal build its cell, 

 describes how the work is done. The ciliary wheels sweep particles into the upper 

 end of the digestive canal, where they are fastened together, probably by a glutinous 

 secretion, and moulded into a rounded pellet, which is then disgoi-ged, and the animal, 

 bending over, deposits the pellet upon the edge of the wall it is building, thus imitating 

 the art of the bricklayer. 



The Rotifera include many odd forms, among them the extraordinary spherical 

 creature discovered by Professor Semper in the Philippines, and the group of the 



Fig. 189. — Floscularia omata. 



