208 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



horn-like processes. 3. Scepanotrocha g. n., corona screened by a dorsal 

 membranous plate arising from the upper lip. 



The species with relatively narrow lumen are divided into three 

 sub-sections : — 1. With four toes. 2. With three toes. 3. With toes 

 bearing a number of cup-like suckers or united to form a broad disk or 

 twin disks. 



The four-toed species are arranged in five genera: — 1. Philodinn 

 Ehr., skin smooth, spurs short, non -parasitic. 2. Embata g. n., skin 

 smooth, spurs long, parasitic. 3. Dissotrocha g. n., skin coarse, abdo- 

 minal transverse skinfolds few, viviparous. 4. Pleuretra g. n., skin 

 coarse, abdominal transverse skinfolds numerous, oviparous. In these 

 four genera there is always a distinct throat or gullet. 5. Abrochtha g. n., 

 gullet absent, rami protrusible into mouth-cavity. 



The three-toed species are assigned to already existing genera accord- 

 ing to their customary mode of reproduction, thus : — (a) Gallidina Ehr., 

 oviparous ; (b) Rotifer Schrank, viviparous. 



The small group in which the foot ends in a sucker-like disk or twin 

 disks consists mostly of moss-dwelling species, which do not otherwise 

 greatly differ from the family type. A similar foot structure dis- 

 tinguishes, however, two curious parasitic forms, which again differ in 

 the arrangement of the foot-glands. This group therefore is divided 

 into three genera: — 1. Mniobia g. n., foot short, foot-glands in longi- 

 tudinal series. 2. Anomopus Piovanelli, foot long, foot-glands in 

 longitudinal series. 3. Discopus Zelinka, foot-glands in transverse 

 series. 



The family of the Adinetidse comprises two genera, differing notably 

 in the type of foot : — 1. Adineta Hudson and Gosse, foot slender, spurs 

 two. 2. Bradyscela g. n., foot stout, spurs modified or absent. 



The family Microdinidse is represented only by the genus Microdina 

 Murray, having four toes. 



The new classification deals with 105 species considered to be 

 capable of recognition, and a list is further given of 49 species thought 

 to be insufficiently described or otherwise invalid. Descriptions are 

 given of two new species, for which it has seemed desirable to create the 

 new genus Scepanotrocha, as above. In S'. rubra sp. n., found in 

 sphagnum from several localities in Great Britain, Germany, and U.S.A., 

 the dorsal membranous corona-screen has its lateral edges rounded. In 

 S. corniculata sp. n., obtained from ground moss from Bournemouth, 

 the lateral edges of the screen are produced each into a short point 

 somewhat ventrally deflected. 



Rotifera of German East Africa.* — In the 8th Memoir on the 

 Microfauna of German East Africa, collected by F. Fulleborn during the 

 years 1898-1900, E. von Daday enumerates 98 species of Rotifera from 

 that region, of which the following are described as new : Notommata 

 brarhiata (which evidently is Kirkman's Copeus triangulatus, described 

 in this Journal in 1906), Hydatina oblonga, Brachionus bakeri var. 

 inermis, B. bakeri var. fuUeborni, and B. bakeri var. michaeheni. The 

 author also gives a tabulated list of all species found in other parts of 

 Africa. 



* Zoologica, xxiii. (1910) Heft 59, pp. 59-106 (2 pis.). 



