180 FRESH-WATER RHIZOPODS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CENTROPYXIS. 



Greek, Icentron, a prickle ; puxis, a bos. 



Areella: Ehrenberg. Difflugia : Perty. Cenlropyxjs ; Stein, 1857. 



Echinopyxis : Claparfede and Lachmann, 1859. Homocnchlamys : Ehrenberg, 1871. 



Shell discoid, circular, oval, or ovoid, deepest or thickest and most 

 obtuse posteriorly, with the base on a level interiorly and deeply inflected 

 to the mouth, with the dome highest posteriorly, gently curving or sloping 

 forward, more abruptly convex backward; mouth and fundus eccentric 

 in opposite directions, the former anterior and inferior, the latter posterior 

 and even, or furnished with a variable number of conical spines. Mouth 

 circular or oval and entire, or with the border more or less deeply sinuous, 

 and extending into appendages within the shell toward the dome. Shell 

 usually of various shades of brown, but sometimes colorless, composed of 

 chitinoid membrane mostly incorporated with variable proportions of 

 quartz-sand, and often to such an extent as to assume the structure common 

 in Difflugia. Sarcode colorless; pseudopods digitate. 



Centropyxis, according to my experience, always appears distinctly 

 separated from Areella, while, on the other hand, it appears more closely 

 related with Difflugia through D. constricta, The shell of Centropyxis, as 

 in the latter, has the mouth and fundus eccentric in opposite directions, 

 while in Areella they are both central in the same longitudinal axis. The 

 shell of Areella is chitinoid, with a distinct hexagonal cancellated structure, 

 and is always free from extraneous particles, whereas in Centropyxis the 

 shell, though often membranous or chitinoid, does not exhibit a cancellous 

 structure, and is mostly incorporated with more or less extraneous matters. 



CENTROPYXIS ACULEATA. 



Plates XXX, rigs. 20-34; XXXI; XXXII, figs. 29-37. 



Areella aculeata. Ehrenberg: Ab. Ak. Wis. Berlin, 1830, 40; 1841 , 368, Taf. iii, Fig. 5. Infusionsthierchen, 



1838, 133, Taf.ix, Fig. vi. 

 Areella ecornis. Ebrenberg : Ab. Ak. Wis. Berlin, 1841, 3G8, Taf. if Fig. 9 ; Taf. iii, Fig. 46. Microgeologie, 



1854, Taf. xxxiv, ii, Fig. 1. 

 Difflugia aculeata. Perty: Kennt. kleinst. Lebensfornien, 1852, 186. 

 Centropyxis aculeata. Stein: Sitz. Biibm. Gesells. Wis. ? 1857. 

 Echinopyxis aculeata. Claparede and Lachmann: Etudes Infus. 1859, 447. — Carter: An. Mag. Nat. Hist. 



xiii, 1864, 29, pi. i, fig. 8.— Barnard : Proe. Am. As. Adv. Sc. xxiv, 1875, 241. Am. Quart. 



Mic. Jour. 1879, 83, pi. viii, fig. 3. 

 A. Centropyxis aculeata. Ebrenberg: Ab. Ak. Wis. Berlin, 1871, 245. 

 A. Homccochlamys ecornis. Ehrenberg: Ibidem, 244. 

 A. Centropyxis Diaclema. Ehrenberg: Ibidem, 245. 

 Areella Diadema. Ehrenberg: Ibidem, 259, Taf. iii, Fig. 7, 8. 

 Centropyxis. Leidy: Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. 1876, 57. 

 Centropyxis ecornis, variety. Leidy. 



