The royal natural history . red life in the sea, oftenhidden in the cavities of horny sponges. Although capable of slow locomotion,Loxosoma appears seldom to move from the place once chosen. It feeds on micro-scopic particles, brought by the stream of water kept up in the cavities of thesponge it inhabits. This food is conducted to the mouth by the cilia of the tentaclesand by a ciliated furrow round the tentacle disc. The method of reproduction of thisanimal is remarkable. Two lateral buds are seen on the mother in the illustrationon p. 426. The young animals quickly and without any metamorph
The royal natural history . red life in the sea, oftenhidden in the cavities of horny sponges. Although capable of slow locomotion,Loxosoma appears seldom to move from the place once chosen. It feeds on micro-scopic particles, brought by the stream of water kept up in the cavities of thesponge it inhabits. This food is conducted to the mouth by the cilia of the tentaclesand by a ciliated furrow round the tentacle disc. The method of reproduction of thisanimal is remarkable. Two lateral buds are seen on the mother in the illustrationon p. 426. The young animals quickly and without any metamorphosis attain theform of the parent, and may, even while attached to her, feed independently, onlyfalling off when mature, and becoming attached in her neighbourhood. This is 426 MOLLUSCOIDEA not, .however, the only manner of reproduction. From time to time, without anyinterruption in the lateral budding, fertilised eggs ascend from the ovary towards-the tentacle-disc, and develop into larvae which in no way resemble Loxosoma. A fixed moss-animal (Loxosoma) with lateral buds ( x 200). a, Stock ; b, Swarm-larva ( x 100). They nave flat, almost shield-shaped bodies, surrounded by a ciliated breaking out through the disc of the mother, at the stage represented in theillustration, they pass through various changes before reaching the adult form. LAMP-SHELLS. The Lamp-Shells,—Class Brachiopoda. 427 We must now leave the moss-animals, about whose relationship to the rest ofthe animal kingdom we know so little, and pass on to the equally enigmatical classof the arm-footed animals, or Brachiopoda. The chief structural feature in theBrachiopods which led to their being classed as molluscs, was their bivalve were therefore regarded as a subdivision of the bivalves. How easily aBrachiopod might be mistaken for a mussel will be understood by the reader whoglances at the accompanying illustrations. But whereas the shells of the musselare at the animals sides, and clo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booksubjectzoology
