Arthur Winkler Wills

“ One finds occasionally an individual in which they are so few and irregular as only to suffice for the identification of the species, Regular feeding with water containing abundant food produces a corresponding increase in their number and regularity, and a supply of carmine and indigo on alternate days is followed by the deposition of very regular alternate layers of red and blue courses on the outside of the tube, which, when viewed by strong dark background illumination, then forms a very pretty object. ”

“ The larger part are whirled away from the vicinity of the animal in the manner familiar to all who have observed the thecated Rotifers or the freshwater Polyzoa—but those which are utilised for building purposes are ejected between the rotifer and its tube or theca, and received under the lower margin of the ciliated trochus, where they remain for a few seconds as if the animal were making sure of its proper hold, and then by & sudden retraction of its body it dabs the pellet into a proper position on the margin of the theca, and instantly resumes its usual condition. ”

“ The history of this species appears to be as follows:—In the journal of the Quekett Club, 1868, this animal was described by Mr. J. G. Tatem as a variety of Melicerta, in which “only rudely shaped excrementitious masses adherent to the gelatinous investment are observed. ”