Type in the Indian Museum.
The most definite character in which this species differs from F. sultana and F. australiensis is the ornamentation of one surface of the statoblast, both surfaces of which are smooth in the two latter species. From F. cunningtoni, the statoblasts of which are unknown, it differs in having almost cylindrical instead of depressed zoœcia and in not having the zoœcia densely covered with sand-grains.
Geographical Distribution.—Western India (the Malabar Zone): Igatpuri Lake, W. Ghats (alt. ca. 2,000 feet), Bombay Presidency, and Shasthancottah Lake near Quilon, Travancore.
Biology.—In both the lakes in which the species has yet been found it was collected in November. The specimens obtained in Travancore were found to be undergoing a process of regeneration due at least partly to the fact that most of the polypides had perished and that statoblasts were germinating in the old zoœcia. Specimens from the Bombay Presidency, which were obtained a little later in the month, were in a more vigorous condition, although even they contained many young polypides that were not yet fully formed. It seems, therefore, not improbable that F. indica dies down at the beginning of the hot weather and is regenerated by the germination of its statoblasts at the beginning of the cold weather.
At Shasthancottah zoaria were found entangled with zoaria of a delicate form of Plumatella fruticosa to which they bore a very close external resemblance.
Plumatellidæ, Allman (partim), Mon. Fresh-Water Polyzoa, pp. 76, 81 (1857).
Phylactolæmata which have horseshoe-shaped lophophores and a well-developed ectocyst not specialized to form an organ of progression. Some or all of the statoblasts are provided with a "swim-ring" consisting of symmetrically disposed, polygonal chitinous chambers containing air.
It is convenient to divide the Plumatellidæ as thus defined into subfamilies (the Plumatellinæ and the Lophopinæ), which may be defined as follows:—
Subfamily A. PLUMATELLINÆ.