Of the Lobosa, we may take a well-known representative of the group, the Protomyxa, found at the bottom of fresh-water pools, especially those near bog-moss, where its minute orange-coloured particles of jelly-like substance are seen creeping over stones or shells. If quietly watched the pseudopodia, some of which are broad and others slender, become quiescent spheres, which break up into numerous portions, each of which becomes a new animal.
This group is divided into the shell-less (Nuda) and shell-formed (Testacea). The brown, horny covering is often finely faceted, and is either shaped like a dome, semi-circular, or flat as a box, through which they protrude their few or many pseudopodia (seen in [Fig. 326]).
PLATE XV.
GROMIA.
In the Difflugia the lorica or shell is strengthened by the addition of silicious particles; in Euglypta it is sac-shaped, with a jagged free margin, the surface being covered by overlapping scales; while Arcella are capable of secreting vesicles of air in their interior, whereby they are enabled to rise to the surface. On some parts of our coast, if the sea sand be carefully looked over with a pocket lens, there will often be found minute grains of a porcelain oval kind, belonging to the Miliolina, segmented or strung together not quite in the same plane.
Fig. 327.—Section of Rotalia.
a,a, Radiating interceptal canals; b, Internal bifurcations; c, Transverse branch; d, Tubular wall of chambers.
