TIE INTELLECTUAL OBSERYER. 



MARCH, 1865. 



THE WANDERING POLYZOON (Ceistatelia Mucedo). 



BY REV. W. HOUGHTON, M.A., F.L.S. 

 (With a Coloured Plate.) 



How well I remember the delight I felt on my first discovery 

 of this beautiful little animal ! I hardly know of anything in 

 nature more exquisitely lovely than this, the only locomotive* 

 species of the entire group of Polyzoa. Perhaps that wonderful 

 little rotifer, the Melicerta ringens, may almost be considered a 

 greater favourite, for Oristatella builds no house with bricks 

 she fashions herself, like that other interesting creature. But 

 still Oristatella has charms which even Melicerta is unable to 

 display. Just look at a full-grown specimen, of an inch and a 

 half in length, with the triple row of most delicate plumes, 

 arranged around the margin of the body in regular concentric 

 form, and I am sure you will quite agree with Professor Allman, 

 (our great English authority on the fresh- water Polyzoa), who 

 has published a beautiful monograph of this group, f and own 

 with him, that a " more interesting and beautiful animal than 

 a fully-developed specimen of Gristatella mucedo can scarcely 

 be imagined." If any of my zoological readers are strangers 

 to this little beauty, I must recommend them to make diligent 

 search, when next summer comes, amidst the stems and leaves 

 of submerged aquatic plants in clear ponds, lakes, and mill- 

 pools ; but as the successful hunt after delicate treasures is gene- 

 rally attended with difficulty, and perhaps after many days of 

 patient exploration, with much eye-straining and back-aching 

 in addition, it may be as well to give a hint or two how to 

 proceed in order to find Oristatella. And here I may take 



* One could almost wish that the specific name of vagans, so descriptive of the 

 habits of this Polyzoon, first proposed by Lamark, had been allowed to stand ; but 

 the laws of nomenclature are rightly observed, 

 t Ray Society, 1856. 



VOL. VII. — NO. II. G 



