Polypides. The polypides lie semi-recumbent in the mass and never stand upright in a vertical position.
Statoblasts. The statoblasts are of considerable size and normally bear at both ends a series of chitinous processes armed with double rows of small curved spinules.
As a rule the genus is easily recognized by means of the statoblasts, but sometimes the processes at the ends of these structures are absent or abortive and it is then difficult to distinguish them from those of Lophopus. There is, however, no species of that genus known that has statoblasts shaped like those of the Indian species of Lophopodella.
Three species of Lophopodella, all of which occur in Africa, have been described; L. capensis from S. Africa, which has the ends of the statoblast greatly produced, L. thomasi from Rhodesia, in which they are distinctly concave, and L. carteri from E. Africa, India and Japan, in which they are convex or truncate.
The germination of the gemmule and the early stages in the development of the polyparium of L. capensis have been described by Miss Sollas (Ann. Nat. Hist. (8) ii, p. 264, 1908).
37. Lophopodella carteri (Hyatt). ([Plate III], figs. 4, 4a.)
Lophopus sp., Carter, Ann. Nat. Hist. (3) iii, p. 335, pl. viii, figs. 8-15 (1859). ? Lophopus sp., Mitchell, Q. J. Micr. Sci. London (3) ii, p. 61 (1862). Pectinatella carteri, Hyatt, Comm. Essex Inst. iv, p. 203 (footnote) (1866). Pectinatella carteri, Meissner, Die Moosthiere Ost-Afrikas, p. 4 (in Mobius's Deutsch-Ost-Afrika, iv, 1898). Lophopodella carteri, Rousselet, Journ. Quek. Micr. Club, (2) ix, p. 47, pl. iii, figs. 6, 7 (1904). Lophopus carteri, Annandale, Rec. Ind. Mus. ii, p. 171, fig. 3 (1908). Lophopodella carteri, id., ibid. v, p. 55 (1910).
Zoarium. The zoarium as a rule has one horizontal axis longer than the other so that it assumes an oval form when the polypides are expanded; when they are retracted its outline is distinctly lobular. Viewed from the side it is mound-shaped. The polypides radiate, as a rule in several circles, from a common centre. The ectocyst is much swollen, hyaline and colourless.
Polypide. The polypide has normally about 60 tentacles, the velum at the base of which is narrow and by no means strongly festooned. The stomach is yellow or greenish in colour. The extended part of the polypide measures when fully expanded rather less than 3 mm., and each limb of the lophophore about the same.
Statoblast. The statoblast is variable in shape and size but measures on an average about 0.85 × 0.56 mm. The ends are truncate or subtruncate; the capsule is small as compared with the swim-ring and as a rule circular or nearly so. The processes at the two ends are variable in number; so also are their spinules, which are arranged in two parallel rows, one row on each side of the process, and are neither very numerous nor set close together; as a rule they curve round through the greater part of a circle and are absent from the basal part of the process.