36. Stolella indica, _Annandale_. (Plate V, figs. 3, 4.) _Stolella indica_, Annandale, Rec. Ind. Mus. iii, p. 279, fig. (1909). _Stolella indica_, _id._, _ibid._ v, p. 53 (1910). _Zoarium._ The zoarium is adherent and linear, having neither lateral nor vertical branches. _Zooecia._ The zooecia are short and slender, erect or nearly so, distinctly emarginate and furrowed. Their ectocyst is soft, colourless and transparent but minutely roughened on the surface. _Polypide._ The tentacles number from 30 to 35 and are rather short and stout, sometimes being slightly expanded at the tips. The stomach is comparatively short and abruptly truncated posteriorly. _Statoblasts._ Both free and fixed statoblasts are found, and both are variable in form, the latter varying in outline from the circular to the broadly oval. The free statoblasts resemble those of _Plumatella punctata_, but are sometimes rather more elongate. TYPE in the Indian Museum. [Illustration: Fig. 45.--Zoarium of _Stolella indica_ on stem of water-plant (from Calcutta), × 6.] GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.--So far as we know, this species is confined to the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Major Walton found it at Bulandshahr in the United Provinces, and it is not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. BIOLOGY.--The zoaria of _S. indica_ are usually fixed to the roots of duckweed or to the stems of other plants. They are often found together with those of _P. punctata_. A slight infusion of brackish water into the ponds in which it lives does not seem to be inimical to this species, but I have found it in ponds in which nothing of the kind was possible. It flourishes during the "rains" and, to judge from specimens kept in an aquarium, is very short-lived. Major Walton found it growing over a zoarium of _Hislopia lacustris_. Subfamily B. LOPHOPINÆ. The zoaria of this subfamily are never dendritic but form gelatinous masses which, except in _Australella_, are cushion-shaped or sack-like. With the possible exception of _Australella_, they possess to a limited extent the power of moving along vertical or horizontal surfaces, but it is by no means clear how they do so (see p. 172). The statoblasts are remarkable for their large size, and it is noteworthy that _Australella_, which is intermediate in structure between the Plumatellinæ and the Lophopinæ, possesses statoblasts of intermediate size. The swim-ring is always well developed, and fixed statoblasts are unknown. Only two genera (_Lophopodella_ and _Pectinatella_) have been definitely proved to occur in India, but a third (_Lophopus_[BK]) is stated to have been found in Madras. Should it be met with it will easily be recognized by the upright position of its polypides when their tentacles are expanded and by the fact that the statoblasts never bear marginal processes.