584 Transactions of the Society. 



XVIII. — South African Rotifera : Collected by the Shackleton 

 Antarctic Expedition, 1907. 



By James Murray, F.E.S.E. 



Plate XVI. 



While the ' Nimrocl ' lay at Cape Town for two days on the out- 

 ward voyage in 1907, Drs. Mackay and Michell gathered a small 

 quantity of moss on Table Mountain. When this was washed 

 a few days afterwards, eleven species of Bdelloid Eotifers were 

 found. 



Eight of them are known species ; two are species not yet 

 described, but known to Mr. Bryce ; one new species (Dissotrocha 

 pectinata) is here described. 



Little has been written about the Bdelloida of South Africa. 

 Ehrenberg (#)* records Callidina rediviva and C. hexaodon for Cape 

 Colony : Thorpe (9) found Philodina citrina at the Cape ; Kirk- 

 man (3) gives a list of seven species for Natal, but he is doubtful 

 about several of them. Eousselet, in 1907 (7), summed up all 

 that was known about South African Eotifera, including a list 

 compiled by Mr. Milne, and the species collected by himself. In 

 a list of 156 species only thirteen are Bdelloids. 



The R. tardus, given by Eousselet on Kirkman's authority, is 

 doubtless R. longirostris ( Janson). Adding Ehrenberg's two species, 

 the identity of which is doubtful, and C. yinnigera, mentioned by 

 myself in 1908 (5), we have a total of seventeen species recorded 

 for South Africa. 



Mr. Milne is known to have observed a great many others, 

 including some very peculiar species, and some of these I have 

 seen among moss which he sent to me, but they are not yet 

 published. 



Lastly, in 1911 (6), I compiled from material collected by the 

 curators of the Transvaal Museum a list of forty species, twenty- 

 eight for the Transvaal and nineteen for Cape Colony. Six new 

 species are described. That paper has gone to press earlier than 

 this one, but is likely to appear later, so it cannot be referred to 

 accurately. 



Combining all these records, we find that fifty-four Bdelloids 

 are known in South Africa. For all Africa the number is seventy- 

 one, of which, however, several are doubtful. 



* The figures in brackets refer to the Bibliography at the end of paper. 



