Some African Rotifers. By J. Murray. 9 



Mniobia tetraodon Ehr. (9). 

 Synonym: Gallidina tetraodon. 



Ill African examples the disks have large, truncate, peg-like 

 papilla?, bearing a few short cilia, such as have already been noted 

 for Embata laticeps and Callidina magna. 



Mniobia russeola Zelinka (~.£). 

 Synonym : Callidina russeola. 



The trunk and foot were distinctly papillose. Usually they are 

 only stippled. 



Mniobia scabrosa sp. n. Plate II. figs. Wa-lOb. 



Specific characters. — Large ; trunk and foot papillose ; rostrum 

 stout, antenna of moderate length ; jaws with thickened border, and 

 six or seven teeth on each ; corona large ; foot short ; spurs long, 

 slender, tapering, widely divergent, papillose, without interspace ; 

 colour red. 



General description. — Length when creeping 4o0yu,, diameter of 

 trunk 130 /a, of rostrum 32 /x, tip to tip of spurs 72 /a, length of jaw 

 oO/ll. The trunk is deeply longitudinally plicate, and the segments 

 are separated by deep constrictions. The papilla? cover the whole 

 of the central and anterior trunk, the rump and the foot, even to 

 the spurs. On the trunk they are set close together and are of 

 uniform size. Each shows a small central dot. The neck and 

 head are smooth. 



The rostrum bears inconspicuous lamella?, which meet in the 

 middle line, and radiating straight seta?. The length of the antenna 

 is three-fifths of the neck width. The corona is large, and the head 

 resembles that of Mniobia scarlatina, but on the only occasion when 

 it was seen feeding 1 failed to get a drawing of it. The neck is very 

 short, and the segment bearing the antenna is not prominent. 



The rump is not sharply marked off from the central trunk, and 

 it is difficult to discriminate fourth central from preanal. The 

 anal segment, is very short. The foot is short, of only three seg- 

 ments. The first is constricted, then bulges again behind. The 

 spurs measure about 40/* in length. The terminal disc of the foot 

 is two-lobed. The vibratile tags are somewhat broad and broaden 

 towards one end. 



The jaw has a very broad yellow border. Besides the six or 

 seven strong teeth there is a thinner ridge or tooth at each end of 

 the series. 



It is only necessary to compare M. scabrosa with M. scarlatina, 

 the only closely related species, and the only papillose species 

 hitherto known in the genus. The two species differ in the papilla?, 



