Habitat.—Indian Ocean, Zanzibar, Pullen, depth 2200 fathoms.
Family XXIX. Lithelida, Haeckel (Pl. [49], figs. 1-7).
Lithelida, Haeckel, 1862, Monogr. d. Radiol., p. 515.
Definition.—Larcoidea with symmetrical spiral shell, divided by the spiral plane into two symmetrical halves; all windings of the spiral lie in this plane. Primordial chamber either simple or Larnacilla-shaped.
The family Lithelida comprises all those Larcoidea in which the growth of the latticed shell is spirally winding in one plane, Nautilus-like. They agree in the spiral growth with the following family. But in the Streblonida the spiral is screw-shaped, ascending (like Helix). Therefore in these latter the geometrical fundamental form of the shell is asymmetrical or "dysdipleural," whereas in the Lithelida bilateral-symmetrical or "eudipleural." The lentelliptical or nearly spherical shell may be divided by a median section into two symmetrical halves; the right half is the mirror image of the left half.
When in 1862 I founded the family Lithelida in my Monograph (p. 515), I knew only one genus, Lithelius, with two species. The rich material of the Challenger collection contains a great number of similar spirally constructed Larcoidea, so that at the present time we may distinguish at least six genera. These belong to two different subfamilies, which may possibly be afterwards better separated as families. The first subfamily, Spiremida, possess a simple, spherical or subspherical, medullary shell; the second subfamily, Larcospirida, possess a trizonal or Larnacilla-shaped medullary shell. No doubt these latter must be derived from Pylonida, as we observe all stages of development starting from a simple Trizonium; but perhaps also the Spiremida have the same origin, their simple, spherical or subspherical, medullary shell being derived from a trizonal or Larnacilla-shaped medullary shell by reduction.
The general appearance in both subfamilies of the Lithelida is quite the same, and it requires a careful study of the medullary shell to distinguish certainly the Spiremida from the Larcospirida. This distinction is often not easy, particularly in the larger forms; the shell is often very opaque and difficult to understand. Only in one position, if the spiral axis be parallel to the axis of the eye of the observer, and the spiral plane be therefore fully seen in the optical plane of the microscope, the spiral line (or the axial section of the latticed spiral lamella) is distinctly observed; in all other positions the figure of the spiral is more or less indistinct, and the whole microscopical image often quite intricate and confused. The sufficient study of this family requires therefore the contemplation of the shell from different sides, and is the more difficult, as the variability of the Lithelida—as of the Pylonida—is extraordinarily great.
The description which I gave of Lithelius (1862) in my Monograph is in some points erroneous, and was afterwards (1879) corrected by R. Hertwig, who explained particularly the near relation of it to Tetrapyle. Indeed the intermediate forms between the Lithelida and the Pylonida are so numerous and so evident in all stages of development, that the derivation of the former (at least of the Larcospirida) from the latter is quite clear. The analogy between the structure of the Lithelida and the calcareous (foraminiferous) Alveolinida is not so complete as I supposed it to be in my Monograph (1862); particularly the formation of the small chambers between the turnings of the spiral lamella is much more complete in the Alveolinida than in the Lithelida.
The cortical shell of all Lithelida has the same geometrical fundamental form as Nautilus or as the nautiloid Polythalamia (Polystomella, Nummulites, &c.); therefore the shell is dipleural, being divided by the median plane into two symmetrical lateral halves. Since the spiral line lies in the median plane, we will call it the spiral plane; it separates the right half from the left. The axis of the body, around which the spiral turns (without touching it), is the spiral axis. The latticed part of the cortical shell, which turns around them, is the spiral lamella. Only in one genus of our family, viz., Tholospira, are the spiral axis, the lateral axis, the spiral plane, and the sagittal plane quite as in Nautilus. In all other genera this disposition is different or is uncertain. This depends on the different part of the cortical shell, from which the spiral growth begins. In this respect we can distinguish four different modes.
In the Larcospirida (or the Lithelida with Larnacilla-shaped medullary shell) the spiral growth exhibits four quite different forms. It begins here with Larcospira, in which already the first cortical girdle of the Diplozonaria determines the spiral growth; one wing of this girdle, the transverse girdle of Amphipyle, grows more swiftly than the other, overgrows it, and thus turns around the principal axis. In Pylospira the first or transverse girdle is already perfectly formed (as in Amphipyle), and the spiral growth is introduced by the second or lateral girdle of Tetrapyle; one wing of it (the right or the left) grows more swiftly than the other, overgrows it, and thus turns around the sagittal axis. In Tholospira also the second girdle is complete, and the spiral growth begins from the third or sagittal girdle. One of its wings grows more swiftly than the other, overgrows it, and thus turns around the transverse axis. Consequently we see that each of the three dimensive planes of the lentelliptical Larcoid-body may be the spiral plane: in Larcospira the transverse plane, in Pylospira the lateral plane, in Tholospira the sagittal plane. Correspondingly the spiral axis in the first genus is the principal, in the second the sagittal, in the third the transverse axis of the central Larnacilla-shell. Therefore in these three genera the spiral plane is the plane of the latticed girdle, which determines the spiral growth, one of both its wings overgrowing the other.