Common objects of the microscopeWood, J. G. (John George)
Science
Common objects of the microscope
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Microscopes; Microscopy
We pass on to notice in conclusion two or three of the fixed forms,
of which a beautiful example is the _Melicerta ringens_ (Plate IX.
Fig. 7), whose building operations have a never-ending charm. Particles
of débris are accumulated in a curious little cavity in the chin, in
which they are whirled round, and mixed with a secretion which binds
them together, and when a brick is made the head is bent down and the
brick applied to the desired spot with mathematical regularity. By
supplying fine particles of innocuous colouring matters, the Melicerta
may be made to build a variegated case. The most remarkable specimen
known is the one figured in Hudson and Gosse’s work, which was found
by the present writer in a specimen of water from which he had already
obtained five-and-twenty species of various kinds of Rotifer; the water
was collected by an inexperienced person, and there was only a pint
of it. It had, moreover, been kept for three weeks, and the moral of
that is, to preserve one’s gatherings, and keep an aquarium into which
they may be poured when done with for the moment. New forms will often
develop with startling rapidity, their eggs having been present in the
original gathering. The young form of Melicerta, shown in Plate XIV.
Fig. 20, is strangely unlike its mother, and much more nearly resembles
its father.
Another group of extreme beauty is the Flosculariæ (Fig. 19), several
species of which are very common. They will be easily known by their
appearance, which resembles a shaving brush when closed; whilst, when
opening, the shaving brush resembles a cloud of delicate shimmering
threads, which at last stand out straight, radiating all round the head
of the creature, and forming the trap by means of which it catches its
prey. Finally, there is the lovely _Stephanoceros_ (not, unfortunately,
very common), with its five symmetrically placed and gracefully curved
arms, perhaps the most lovely of all Rotifers, with its exquisitely
transparent body, sparkling with masses of green and golden brown.
He who finds this has a treasure indeed, and will be encouraged to
prosecute his studies in this “Fairyland of Microscopy.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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