IvNDAMCKHA CITELLI SP. N<>V. 447 



logically from closely related species so that it should be con- 

 sidered a new one? Second, there is the possibility of man, or 

 domestic animals, becoming the host of an endamoebae normally 

 found in lower animals. Kessel's work on specificity has en- 

 countered severe censure, especially from European workers (e.g., 

 Wenyon). It seems to the writer that the more logical method 

 to criticize the work would be to repeat it, and thus determine if 

 it is really open to such serious defects as has been charged. 



SPH/ERITA ENDAMOSB^E sp. nov. 



The name Sphxrita was given by Dangeard (1886) to a genus 

 of the family Chytridiacese, which he considers to represent a 

 transition from animal toward plant forms. Likewise, Doflein 

 (1916) assigns these forms to the borderline between the plant 

 and animal kingdoms, with the additional comment that they 

 must be reinvestigated by one who would study the relationships 

 of the sporozoa, flagellates, and rhizopods. They are of interest 

 to protozoologists not only because of their phylogenetic relation- 

 ships to the protozoa, but also because Sphxrita, and other 

 cythridines, such as Nucleophaga (Dangeard, 1895), are parasites 

 upon protozoa, Sphxrita in the cytoplasm, and Nucleophaga in 

 the nucleus. A number of the earlier observers, particularly 

 Stein, Carter, Kent, and de Lanessan misinterpreted the develop- 

 mental phases of a Sphxrita within Euglena as the production of 

 embryos from the nucleus of the Euglena, which grew flagella 

 and later developed into the adult flagellate (see Dangeard, 

 1886). Dangeard (1886, 1894, 1895) clearly showed that what 

 these authors considered to be the growing and multiplying 

 nuclei of Euglena were in reality cythridine parasites of the 

 flagellate for which he established the genus Sphxrita. 



There are not many references to Sphxrita in the literature. 

 Dangeard proposed the name Sphxrita endogena for the form 

 found in flagellates (Euglena, etc.) and rhizopods (Nuclearia and 

 Heterophrys) . Later Chatton and Brodsky (1909) proposed a 

 separation of the species found in these two groups of protozoa, 

 suggesting that Sphxrita endogena be retained for the form 

 found in rhizopods, and that the Euglena parasite be called 

 Sphxrita dangeardi. Chatton and Brodsky (1909) described a 



