The royal natural history . These animalcules are inhabitants of fresh water; their chief character-istic, and the one to which they owe their name, being the possession of long,slender, somewhat stiff pseudopods, which radiate from all parts of the spherical 56° THE LOWEST ANIMALS. body, like sun-rays, as represented in pictures. The common sun - animalcule(Actinophrys) forms a tiny translucent spherical globule, bristling withpseudopods, and about ^u of an incn in diameter. The pseudopods appear stiffbut are quite flexible, and the body contains several clear vesicles, one ofwhich is usually
The royal natural history . These animalcules are inhabitants of fresh water; their chief character-istic, and the one to which they owe their name, being the possession of long,slender, somewhat stiff pseudopods, which radiate from all parts of the spherical 56° THE LOWEST ANIMALS. body, like sun-rays, as represented in pictures. The common sun - animalcule(Actinophrys) forms a tiny translucent spherical globule, bristling withpseudopods, and about ^u of an incn in diameter. The pseudopods appear stiffbut are quite flexible, and the body contains several clear vesicles, one ofwhich is usually half emerged from the body and on the point of bursting;the nucleus being in the centre of the body. The animal can move over ahard surface by the alternate relaxation and stiffening of its pseudopods,and sometimes so quickly that it appears to run like a spider. When apseudopod touches some small organism, the latter seems to become paralysed,the pseudopod approximating itself and its prey to the body, which sends up a. green sun-animalcule, Acanthocystis chaiophora (highly magnified). lobe wherein the organism is enveloped. Reproduction commonly takes place bysimple division of the animal into two. The common sun - animalcule occursabundantly amongst the weeds in clear pond-water. The green sun - animalcule{Acanthocystis) figured above is provided with a skeleton composed of finesiliceous rods or rays, the inner ends of which, buried in the body, are tipped withlittle discs, the outer ends being either simple or forked. In another species the siliceous needles are arranged tangentially; further,the skeleton may be formed of a siliceous latticed sphere, as in the lattice-animalcule (Clathrulina), which grows fixed to aquatic plants by the base ofits long flexible stalk. The body sends its long slender pseudopods through themeshes of the lattice; the total length of the animal is about 006 °^ an mcn* RADIOLARIANS. 56i Sun-animalcules often form colonies which result from the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booksubjectzoology
