HiLGENDOKP. — On New Zealand Eotifera. 131 



Colour : A pair of cephalic small red eyes. This is, of 

 course, a species greatly depressed — very greatly depressed. 

 The body, viewed from the dorsal side, is almost circular, the 

 head and foot protruding and breaking the outline. The foot 

 has three distinct telescopic joints, ending in two slender toes 

 of medium length. The head is of a regular rounded shape, 

 with two lateral projections, in which the eyes are lodged. 

 The cilia are arranged round the front of the head, are mostly 

 small, but there is a little clump of larger ones in the centre. 

 The lorica partakes of the almost globular shape of the body ; 

 it embraces the sides of the head with two rather sharp lateral 

 spines, then swells out and sweeps round as if its posterior 

 end were to be a segment of a circle, but a narrow and rather 

 deep bay just over the foot prevents this, and forms two 

 obtuse points at its starting-place. The corresponding bay on 

 the ventral side is of the same width, but is much deeper, 

 to allow the foot to hang down. The difference in the 

 depth of the two indentations is much greater in my speci- 

 mens than in those drawn by Gosse. The lower valve of the 

 lorica — if I may say "valve" — is fiat, but the dorsal one is 

 arched, most sharply in the middle, and flattened out at the 

 edges. Close to the edge and all round are marks like those 

 of the milling of a coin. This feature suggested the name to 

 Gosse, who first described the species ; but I found it an 

 exceedingly variable characteristic, sometimes quite undis- 

 cernible. There is an arched retractile chitinous plate 

 covering the head. The mastax is situated just within the 

 anterior edge of the lorica, is of the malleate type, with three 

 or four teeth in the uncus. The alimentary canal holds a 

 winding course down the middle of the body, and enters the 

 cloaca just at the base of the foot. The foot-muscles are 

 feebly developed, as the foot is neither waved about, retracted 

 as a whole, nor joint by joint. A brain of fair size is situated 

 above the anterior part of the mastax. Two small red eyes 

 are situated in protruding lobes on sides of the head. The 

 reproductive organs are of great size, they and large eggs 

 filling up all the body-space not occupied by the alimentary 

 organs. 



The movements of this Eotifer are steady and de- 

 liberate. 



Hab. The alga-covered pool. 



Var. latusinus. Fig. xv.cZ. 



In this variety the anterior and especially the posterior 

 emarginations are very broad, and the ventral one is hardly 

 greater than the dorsal. The points made by the bays in the 

 lorica are not obtuse, but sharp and gracefully bent upwards 

 and outwards. 



