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ON FIVE NEW SPECIES OF BDELLOID ROTIFERA. 



By David Bryce. 



{Read March 2oth, 1913.) 



Plates 8 & 9. 



The five species of which descriptions are furnished in the present 

 paper have been known as distinct forms for many years past, 

 although their distinguishing characteristics have not hitherto 

 been gathered into the formal diagnosis which constitutes scientific 

 baptism. Four of them belong to that important section of the 

 Philodinidae in which the food is formed into pellets after passing 

 through the mastax, and are assigned to the genus Habrotrocha. 

 The fifth species belongs to the more numerous section of the 

 same family in which the food is not at any time agglutinated 

 into pellets, and being oviparous and possessed of three toes is a 

 member of the genus Callidina, as now restricted. 



Under the name of Habrotrocha munda, I describe the form to 

 which T referred in some remarks upon the identity of Callidina 

 elegans Ehrbg., appended to my paper on " A New Classification 

 of the Bdelloid Rotifera," * as having been wrongly identified as 

 that species by Hudson and Gosse and by other writers. I have 

 endeavoured in that place to show as clearly as possible my 

 reasons for the belief that this form cannot be that which Ehren- 

 berg described ; and inasmuch as none of the various correspondents 

 who have addressed me with regard to my classification have 

 advanced a view contrary to my own in this matter, I think 

 that this victim of mistaken identity may now be established on 

 a firmer and less assailable basis. 



This species is the most common of the few pellet-making forms 

 which have their usual habitat in ponds and ditches. In fresh 

 gatherings it may frequently be seen swimming vigorously with 

 its head slightly deflexed, or perhaps marching about at a great 



* Jaimi. Q. M. C, Ser. 2, Vol. XI., p. 61. 



