98 BRITISH FRESHWATER RH1ZOPODA. 



differs, probably, according to the hardness of the 

 integument. Our own observations prove that the 

 organism will first anchor itself to an alga usually to 

 the terminal cell by means of its longer and more 

 mobile pseudopodia, which have a remarkable power of 

 concentration. They will gather in a bundle on that 

 side of the body, where, for the purpose, they are 

 most required. By an exertion of force, difficult to 

 understand in so tiny a creature, the filament is 

 snapped at a joint, and access to the interior of a cell 

 is thus gained, the contents being rapidly absorbed by 

 the introduction of two or more digitate, pseudopodal 

 processes. 



The method is illustrated on Plate X. Figures 

 1 to 4 were drawn from an example found in the marsh 

 at Dunham, Cheshire. The Vampyrella, in this case, 

 attached itself to the terminal cell of a filament, broke 

 it off and emptied it. Afterwards joint after joint were 

 severed, and finally the joints were left, as represented, 

 lying almost at right angles. A curious fact observed 

 was that alternate joints only of the Conferva were 

 cleared of their chlorophyl. 



The method above described would appear, from the 

 descriptions of other authors, to be a very unusual 

 one. Cienkowski, in ' Archiv fiir Mikr. Anat.' (1865), 

 describes the organism as penetrating the cell-wall of 

 Spirogyra, laterally making a perforation in the in- 

 tegument, and through that extracting the chlorophyl. 

 More recent writers have made the same observation. 

 West (' Journ. Linn. Soc.,' Zool., vol. xxviii, p. 333) 

 found several of these animals, in a collection from 

 Lincolnshire, feeding on the cell-contents of a species 

 of Mougeotia. He says : " The animal attached itself 

 firmly to the lateral margin of one of the cells of the 

 filament, and in a very short time the long, delicate 

 pseudopodia were retracted. At the same time the 

 clear, outer, protoplasmic zone was continually putting 

 forth and retracting shorter and stouter pseudopodia. 

 That portion of the animal which originally attached 



