JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



JUNE 1901. 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



IV. — List of Some of the Rotifer a of Natal. 



By Hon. Thomas Kirkman, F.R.M.S. 



(Bead 20th March, 1901.) 



Plate VI. 



In any paper treating of the fauna or flora of Natal, it is necessary 

 to bear in mind that the land rises rapidly from what is called the 

 coast belt, which is sub-tropical in climate and, as a rule, is very 

 broken country, inland up to the boundary of the Drakensberg. 



Pieterniaritzburg, the capital, or Maritzburg, as it is usually called, 

 though lying in a hollow surrounded by high land, is 2300 feet 

 above the level of the sea, and the climate there is more temperate, 

 though only about fifty miles from Durban, the seaport town. 



Being a member of the Legislative Council, the Upper House of 

 Parliament here, I have had opportunities during the sessions for the 

 past three years of studying the Rotifera about Maritzburg, as well 

 as those on the coast belt on the edge of which I live, about eight 

 miles from the sea. 



The habitats of the Rotifera which I have found near home are 

 chiefly the pools, hollows, basins, and fissures in the rocky broken beds 

 of streams and rivers, which, owing to the configuration of the country, 

 run in some places very rapidly, creeping in and out amid boulders, 

 &c, and in others form placid pools, which in droughty years, as the 

 year 1900, are more or less shallow, the water only just moving, and 

 abound in microscopic life. 



The Inkifa, or Equeefa, is a tributary of the Umzinto, both of 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI. 



Fig. 1. — Pterodina trildbata Shepkard. Dorsal view, x 250. 

 „ 2. „ „ Ventral view, x 250. 



June 19th, 1901 R 



