GENUS SALPINGCECA. 



GENUS I. SALPINGCECA, James-Clark. 



343 



Animalcules solitary, plastic and variable in form, secreting and 

 inhabiting a fixed, chitinous, transparent sheath or lorica ; the lorica 

 either sessile or mounted on a more or less distinctly developed pedicle ; 

 mostly freely movable within and not attached permanently to the lorica, 

 but sometimes united to it posteriorly through the intermedium of a 

 pedicle-like extension of the body-sarcode, or through the medium of several 

 pseudopodic prolongations ; contractile vesicles conspicuous, two or more in 

 number. Inhabiting salt and fresh water. Increasing usually by transverse, 

 rarely by longitudinal fission and by subdivision into spores. 



The animalcules of this genus correspond in form and aspect with those of 

 Codosiga and Monosiga, indicating in the great plasticity of their sarcode, as also in 

 their isolated mode of growth, their more close affinity with the latter. The 

 diversely shaped and elegant transparent loricse secreted and inhabited by the 

 numerous members of the genus Salpingxca, readily distinguish them from those of 

 the preceding groups. Pursuing that comparison between these lowly organized 

 types and the higher infusorial forms which has been previously instituted, Salpin- 

 gceca may be said to exhibit a relationship towards Monosiga analogous to that which 

 subsists between the loricated genera Cothurnia or Vaginicola and the simple illori- 

 cate genus Vorticella. Professor James-Clark, who first established the present 

 generic group, introduced three forms as claimants for admission to it. All of these 

 have been met with by the author in British waters, while upwards of twenty forms 

 new to science are here added to them. The process of alimentation in Salpingosca 

 corresponds exactly with what has been described of Codosiga or Monosiga, there 

 being no distinct mouth as at first presumed by Professor Clark, but the inceptive 

 or oral area being common to the whole region enclosed by the membranous collar, 

 and the ingested food-particles being captured with the assistance of this structure. 

 Propagation by transverse fission, as in Monosiga, as also by the breaking up of 

 the body into sporular elements, has been satisfactorily determined in connection 

 with several specific types. 



A. PEDICLE ABSENT, RUDIMENTARY, OR EXCEPTIONALLY 



DEVELOPED. 



Salpingceca amphoridium, J.-Clk. PL. V. FIGS. 1-9. 



Lorica sessile, flask-shaped, rounded at the base, produced anteriorly 

 into a long, narrow neck, aperture of the neck slightly everted; con- 

 tained zooid adapting itself to the shape of the lorica, inflated pos- 

 teriorly and developed anteriorly into a slender neck-like portion ; con- 

 tractile vesicles three or four in number, posteriorly located ; endoplast 

 spherical, subcentral. Length of lorica, including the neck, 1-3350" to 

 1-2500" ; diameter of the expanded base 1-4000". 



HAB. Fresh water, attached gregariously to Confervae and other 

 aquatic plants. 



Var. a. Same as the above, but the lorica mounted on a very short and 

 rudimentary pedicle. 



This animalcule appears to be the most abundant and widely distributed repre- 

 sentative of the collar-bearing Flagellate order so far discovered. First introduced 



