A lorica is a house, fitting the cell loosely, with an anterior (oral) and occasionally posterior (aboral)
opening. It is carried about by free-swimming species or fixed to the substratum by sessile ones (Corliss 1979). A lorica should not be confused with the distended and often reticulate posterior cell surface of the related Oligotrichida. Agatha and Riedel-Lorjé (2006)