808 ORDER TENTACULIFERA-SUCTORIA. 



GENUS III. SPH^ROPHRYA, C. & L. 



Animalcules illoricate, usually more or less spherical in form, with 

 distinctly capitate suckers scattered irregularly throughout the periphery ; 

 freely movable, and never developing a fixed pedicle as in the genera 

 Podophrya and Acineta. Occurring frequently as endoparasites within 

 other animalcules. 



The unattached and earlier developmental phases of Podophrya and other 

 Acinete types are liable to be mistaken for representatives of this genus, and it is 

 only through definitely ascertaining their persistence of form and reproduction of 

 zooids similar to themselves that a place under this title may be accurately assigned 

 them. To the genus Spharophrya must be referred the majority of the tentaculate 

 animalcules formerly pronounced by Stein to be the Acinetiform embryos of 

 Stylonychia, Urostyla, Stentor, Paramatium, and other Ciliata, but since demonstrated 

 to be merely parasites or consociates of these types, and which have doubtless gained 

 access to the bodies of their respective hosts, in the germinal condition, in connection 

 with their ciliary currents or ordinary food-ingestion. It would seem highly 

 probable that the minute peritrichously ciliate animalcules that have in a like 

 manner been described by Stein and other authorities as similarly infesting various 

 Vorticellidae, represent embryonic states of either Sph&rophrya or allied Adnetidtz. 

 The contour and plan of ciliation of these organisms, it may be mentioned, corre- 

 sponds more especially with that of the germs of the genus Podophrya. The so- 

 called embryos of Epistylis plicatilis, as observed and figured by Claparede and 

 Lachmann, reproduced at PI. XXXIX. Figs. 13-15, are not improbably referable to 

 the same category. Engelmann * has recently proposed to confer upon these Vorti- 

 cellidan parasites the distinct generic title of Endosphara^ and to relegate them to 

 a position among the Infusoria Ciliata. Lacking evidence, however, to show that 

 these organisms propagate independently, it is not considered desirable by the author 

 to separate them from the group with which phylogenetically they would appear to 

 possess the closest affinities. 



Sphserophrya pusilla, C. & L. PL. XLVI. FIG. 6. 



Body minute, spherical, bearing a variable number of short widely 

 scattered suckers ; contractile vesicle single j endoplast ovate. Diameter 

 1-650". HAB. Fresh water. 



Claparede and Lachmann attest to having encountered myriads of this animalcule 

 at Geneva in water containing Oxytrichce, and to which larger ciliate types they were 

 usually found singly attached. Other examples, floating freely in the water, were 

 observed to fix themselves in a similar manner to those Oxytrichcz t that chanced to 

 pass within reach of their short adhesive suckers, and almost invariably to select for 

 their point of attachment the left side of the ciliated oral groove of their host. From 

 this coin d'avantage these minute animalcules no doubt enjoy unprecedented 

 opportunities of intercepting on their own account an abundant supply of food- 

 material otherwise destined for the digestive cavity of their more agile and powerful 

 companions. 



Sphserophrya magna, Maupas. PL. XLVIII. FIGS. 6 AND 7. 



Body evenly spherical ; tentacles distinctly capitate, moderately 

 numerous, not exceeding fifty in number, rarely as many, their length, 



* " Entwickelung von Infusorien, " ' Morphologisches Jahrbuch,' Bd. i., 1876. 

 t The figure given by Claparede most closely resembles Urostyla Weissei, St. 



