THE PROTEOMYXA 



niosing pseudopodia are formed and the affinities seem to be with the 

 Foraminifera. Arachnula has some affinities with Nudearia and is re- 

 garded as a Heliozoon by some authors. 



(III.) Protogenes, Haeckel (Fig. 7), is a small spherical organism 

 with very numerous and delicate radiating and anastomosing pseudopodia 

 Neither vacuoles nor nuclei have 

 been observed. Marine. 



(III.) Biomyxa, Leidy, is a 

 widespread genus occurring both 

 in fresh and salt water. It 

 passes though a spherical stage 

 with radiating pseudopodia, but 

 afterwards assumes a variety of 

 .elongated or outstretched shapes 

 with a few long, isolated, branch- 

 ing and anastomosing pseudo- 

 podia. One large or many small 

 nuclei are said to occur (Rhum- 

 bler). In B. vagans there are 

 numerous minute contractile (?) 

 vacuoles, but in B. (Gymnophrys) 

 cometa there are none. It occurs 

 in swampy sphagnum ground in 

 this country. No definite nuclei 

 have been observed and nothing 

 is known concerning its life- 

 history. The genera Gymnophrys, 

 Cienkowski (Fig. 8, D), and 



Penardia, Cash, seem to be allied to Biomyxa. It has been suggested 

 by Archer that Gymnophrys is but a detached portion of a Gromia, 

 and West (27) has found it in a collection containing a large number 

 of specimens of this Foraminifer. 



(III.) Arachnula, Cienkowski (Fig. 8, F), also is closely related to 

 Biomyxa, but it forms long strands terminating in branching extremities 

 provided with tufts of delicate anastomosing pseudopodia. Cysts have 

 been described. It is found in fresh and brackish water. 



(III.) Pontomyxa, Topsent, is a form closely allied to Biomyxa and 

 Penardia. The body assumes a variety of ribboned or dendritic forms, 

 with numerous or interrupted groups of anastomosing pseudopodia. 

 P. pallida from the Mediterranean Sea is colourless, but P. flava, like 

 Penardia, is golden yellow in colour. P. flava was found in 35-50 

 metres oft" the French coast and also in the Mediterranean Sea. The 

 nuclei are said to be very small and reproduction occurs by multiple 

 fission. 



(III.) Rhizoplasma, Verworn (26). Spherical or sausage-shaped bodies 

 of an orange-red colour, with numerous anastomosing pseudopodia, 5-10 

 mm. in diameter when expanded, found in the Red Sea, are placed in 

 this genus. There are 1-3 large transparent vesicular nuclei. The 

 .coloured granules circulate in the pseudopodia. 



FIG. 7. 



Protogenes primordialis, Haeckel, from Schultze's 

 figure. 



