Towards the end of this month rotifers abounded, and polyps were plentiful. Among the rotifers was one about a two-hundredth of an inch long, protected by a carapace, and having a tail terminating in a single style, hence called "Monostyle." There is perhaps no class of creatures that present so many curious and unexpected forms as the rotifers; and although we have noticed a good many, there are far more that remain to be found and described.
The water in which the preceding animals dwelt was enlivened by the jumps of the Halteria, a little globe surrounded by long fine cilia, with which its movements were effected; and its companion was the Aspidisca lynceus, an oval animalcule, having a distinct cilia or lorica, and furnished, in addition to cilia, with bristles, which enable it to walk and climb as well as swim.
There were also some eggs of rotifers attached to the water plants, in which motion could be descried at intervals, and a little red eye observed. These eggs are always large in proportion to the creatures that lay them, and if they escape being devoured by enemies, may be watched until their contents step forth.
In this, as in other months, omission is made of creatures that have already come under notice, or our list would assume larger dimensions.
CHAPTER VII.
JUNE AND JULY.
Lindia Torulosa—Œcistes Crystallinus—A professor of deportment on stilts—Philodina—Changes of form and habits—Structure of Gizzard in Philodina family—Mr. Gosse's description—Motions of Rotifers—Indications of a will—Remarks on the motions of lower creatures—Various theories—Possibility of reason—Reflex actions Brain of insects—Consensual actions—Applications of physiological reasoning to the movements of Rotifers and Animalcules.
