A METHOD BY WHICH A PROTOZOOX INGESTS WOOD. 283 



Kent, to the genus Trichonympha (T. leidyfi, although Koidzumi 

 ('21) has questioned (and perhaps rightly so) whether it belonged 

 to this or another closely related genus. 



Porter ('97), working with Trichonympha agilis from Relic uh- 

 tcnnes flavipes, attempted to confirm Kent's work, both in the 

 living animal and by means of sections of the body, but was un- 

 able to find any trace of an oral aperture. He suggests that the 

 food particle- may be drawn to the posterior part of the bo<ly 

 by the flagella and there ingested through the thin pellicle. 

 Concerning the po.--ibility of the wood particles being ingested 

 at the anterior end, Porter says: " It seems highly improbable 

 to say nothing of the absence of a permanent oral a pert urt that 

 solid food -lioiiM pass through this region so quickly that not a 



Fits presence in this part should have been di-i -o\ . 

 by an\ o! tho-e \\ho have studied these para>ii< 



Of Porter's suggestion, Kofoid and Swez} '19 remark: 'Un- 

 toi i iin.iii 1\ tlu- evidences for this are uncoinincii It is the 



opinion of these authors that in Trichonympha mmfninnla the 

 centroblepharoplast may function as a cytopharynx; \et they 

 saj . "that the centrosome should form part of the mouth -n 

 tmes, however, seems hardly plausible, but scarcely lc-- BO that 

 it- too* I should be taken in at the posterior end of the body." 

 ( niK-i * '_M) says, "a grave objection to this condition [tin- con- 

 clusion o| K,,|oid and Swezy, '19] is that food particle- are ne\ er 

 loimd in the anterior end of the body. One is thus dra\\ n to the 

 belief that food is incorporated into the body ai the po-terior 

 on, though tin method is still unknown." 



Moie leccntK S\\e/\ ('23) hasdescribed a jiseinlopodial method 

 ot IO.M| in-r-tion in Lcidyopsis and Trichonympha. I'-nt it seems 



to mi- \\ h.it she has realU' seen and has described i- only the last 



-tage of the unusual ingestion of very large pieces of \\ 1, b\- 



the nu'thoil describeil in this paper. Certainly, not one indi- 

 vidual in ten thousand is ever seen to take in such large pieces 

 of \voo. I as -he has figured. Instead, they feed on the smaller 

 piece- of \\ood which they may ingest much more readily and 

 which do not tli-f-ml their bodies in all kinds of abnormal shapes, 

 such as S\M/V figures to be the method of food ingestion. 



Perhaps the chief reason why Swe/.y did not see more of the 

 prore i- due to the fact that she did not find a suitable medium 



19 



