ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICEOSCOPY, ETC 43 



granules develop in the cytoplasm of these cells, and after about a 

 month many of them have degenerated. The ectodermal cells show no 

 signs of degeneration, though the masses containing them have been 

 kept alive for sixty days. In none of the experiments was there any 

 sign of cell-division. The experiments in question resulted in the 

 production of masses that were abnormal and pathological, but the 

 segregation and re-arrangement of the cells after isolation, and the 

 comparatively long duration of life of the tumour-like masses to which 

 they give rise are facts of considerable theoretical interest. 



Protozoa. 



Amoebae of Larval Tipula.* — Doris L. MacKinnon suggests that 

 some system of interchange of preparations would almost certainly check 

 the output of unnecessary " new species." Since Schaudinn's work in 

 1903, the literature dealing with amoebae has yearly increased, and in 

 following up any particular clue it is becoming a very formidable task 

 to unravel the criss-cross strands of evidence. While a good deal is 

 known of the parasitic amoeba of Vertebrates, those of Invertebrates 

 have received much less attention. It seems that Entamoeba blattee 

 Biitschli stands by itself ; Malpighiella from the flea and the leech is a 

 well-defined genus of which the division and encystment are known. 

 Of the others, Amoeba chironomi, with its Umax-like nucleus and con- 

 tractile vacuole, is not like any true parasitic anxeba yet described, while 

 Alexeieff regards Entamoeba aulastomi from the horse-leech as identical 

 with E. ranarum from the frog. 



A description is given of Loschia hartmanni sp. n., a small amceba 

 from the intestine of crane-fly larvae. Encystment follows on copula- 

 tion betweeu gamete aincebulae. The average diameter of the cyst is 

 "lily 8 \i : the cyst wall is remarkably thick : within the cyst the zygote 

 nucleus divides to form at least ten nuclei. This amceba is subject to 

 tiic attacks of an organism that is probably allied to the Micrococcus, 

 described by Nagler in his study of Amceba horticold and a small limax- 

 amceba. Besides Loschia hartmanni there is a species of VaMkampfia 

 feeding well and dividing in the intestine of the larva of Tipula. Eleven 

 different Protozoa are now known from this habitat. 



Notes on Soil Protozoa.*— C. H. Martin and K. R. Lewin have 

 established the occurrence of a trophic Protozoan fauna in certain field 

 snils. In a cucumber bed they found VaMkampfia soli sp. n.. a very 

 active form moving at times by means of a single large pseudopodium, 

 and at other times by means of two anterior flagella, The significance 

 of the flagellate stages is unknown ; whether their appearance forms 

 grounds for removing the limax-amce))X from the group of true amoebic 

 and placing them amongst the Proteomyxa is a question that future 

 work must decide. In the same bed they found Anueba cucumis sp. n., 

 and in a seedling bed a species of Euglypha, Ghlamydophrys. several 



* Arch. Protistenk., xxxii. (1914) pp. 267-77 (2 pis.). 

 t Phil. Trans., Series B, ccv. (1914) pp. 77-94 (2 pis.). 



