Although they are thoroughly aquatic animals, the Tardigrada. are not very abundant in permanent waters. They are most thoroughly at home in situations where the supply of moisture is intermittent, and are therefore conspicuous members of that numerous community of animals known as moss-dwellers. They share with the Bdelloid Rotifera the power of withstanding dessication.

Although they have their headquarters in land mosses, many species are quite at home in ponds, rivers, and lakes.

As lacustrine animals they belong entirely to the littoral region, into which they no doubt continually migrate from the adjoining mosses. A favourite habitat is that strip of shore between the highest and lowest levels of the lake, the ‘grève inondable’. of Forel. Into this often mossy margin they may migrate in the ordinary way, when the loch is low. The next step may be involuntary—the loch rises during floods, and the bears, in common with many other animals, find themselves, willy-nilly, converted into lake-dwellers. It appears to be certain that of the water-bears introduced into lakes, by whatever means, some have found the conditions very congenial. Several species have hitherto been found nowhere but in lakes.