The geometrical fundamental form of the body in nearly all #Stephoidea# (with few exceptions) is distinctly bilateral or "dipleuric," so that we can easily distinguish the {933}three different dimensive axes: the principal axis with different apical and basal poles, the sagittal axis with different dorsal and ventral poles, and the lateral axis with equivalent right and left poles. In only a few genera this bilateral symmetry is not expressed, and a simpler, more regular fundamental form appears. The latter may be either primary (in the monaxonian _Archicircus_ and _Lithocircus_) or secondary, afterwards acquired (in the octahedral _Trissocircus_ and _Trissocyclus_, the cubical _Lithocubus_, the prismatic _Eutympanium_, and some other forms). The most important element of the skeleton, with which the formation begins, in all #Stephoidea# is the simple primary or sagittal ring, lying vertically in the sagittal or median plane of the body and surrounding the monaxonian central capsule. This sagittal ring is the only essential element of the skeleton in all Stephanida, and is completely preserved in all Semantida, also in the greater part of the Coronida and Tympanida. It is partially reduced in the small groups of the true Acanthodesmida (subfamily of Coronida) and the Dystympanida and Eutympanida (subfamilies of Tympanida). Here only the vertical parts of it are preserved (dorsal and ventral rod), whilst the horizontal parts are lost (mitral and basal rod). The sagittal ring lies constantly in the vertical median plane of the body, and therefore divides the enclosed central capsule into a right and a left half. It is rarely regular or subregular, commonly dipleuric or distinctly bilateral, so that we may easily distinguish its dorsal and ventral, apical and basal parts. The most important of these four parts or "rods" is the "basal rod" or the inferior part, because here the ring is in closer connection with the central capsule and its "porous area"; here peculiar spines or branches are commonly developed, which even on the isolated ring immediately determine the basal pole. The opposite upper part, or the "mitral rod," is also often distinguished by the peculiar appendages. The posterior part, or the "dorsal rod" (the anterior rod, _a_, in the description of Bütschli), is commonly more straight, often quite vertical. The opposite anterior part, or the "ventral rod" (the posterior rod, _b_, of Bütschli), is usually more convex, and often strongly curved or semicircular.