SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN TERMITE AND FLAGELLATES. 311 



With two 2 exceptions (Leidyopsis and Trichomitus), no special 

 effort has been made to verify the morphological studies of Kofoid 

 and Swezy. However, as will be seen later, the writer has had 

 occasion to observe many of these protozoa in almost pure cul- 

 tures, which simplifies the matter of morphological details con- 

 siderably, for unless one has really seen this overwhelming mass 

 of squirming, wriggling, undulating protozoa which greet the eye 

 when a termite's intestinal content is viewed under the micro- 

 >< ope, one cannot form any conception whatever of the immense 

 difficulty enxolved in attempting to study in detail any of them 

 except the very large and dominant genus Trichonympha. ( M 

 course, if one has a suitable medium in which to dilute the 

 intrMin.il content-, these difficulties of observation are obviated 

 greatlj . ' "t Kofoid and Swezy state that they did not find such 

 a medium; hence it was difficult for them to make out the finer 

 structures of the two smaller forms, Trichomitus (?) and Strehlo- 



f.fi<iyi>f>\is, when millions of individuals are viewed in a suit- 

 able medium and unobscured by other protozoa, is not nearly 

 so rounded as Kofoid and Swezy have figures from stained speci- 

 mens (Fig. 2). This rounding up which they s|n>\v i- an abnor- 

 mality of fixation. In living material it occurs also unless the 

 olist-rx ation is made in a suitable medium (Cleveland. '^5</). 



In tlu- Ti-rninftsis material most of which came I" nun < >n-y;on, 

 though three colonies were obtained from California which the 

 writer has studied there is certainly a specie- of Trithomonn* 

 present; \\hether or not Trichomitus is al><> present it -ecm- 

 almost impossible to say, though all evidence indicate- that it is 

 not. For in-tance. in those hosts which \\etv experimentally 

 tin -il .f Trichonympha and Leidyopsis, thus affording a \\omlerful 

 opportunity to study Trichomonas (anil Trichomitus too if 

 present), an opportunity which Kofoid and Swe/\ did not ha\e, 

 an u\ostyle nhe distinction between Trichomonas and Tricho- 

 mitus, a v;enus which Swezy founded in 1915, lies chiefly it not 

 entirely in the presence of an axostyle in Trichomonas and tin- 

 absence of it in Trichomitus} can be seen instantly in 50 per cent . 

 of the individuals exclusive of Streblomastix; with more study 

 the number of indi\ iduals in which an axostyle is visible increases 

 cblomtistix has only four flagella. See addenda. 



