168] The Classification of Lower Organisms 



Family 4. Calonymphida [Calonymphidae] Grass! in Atti Accad. Lincei ser. 5, 

 Rendiconti CI. Sci. 20, 1° Semestre: 730 (1911). Flagellates with radially symmetri- 

 cal bodies including more than two nuclei and neuromotor systems, the latter of 

 trichomonad type; entozoic in termites of subfamily Kalotermitinae. These flagellates 

 ingest scraps of wood and are believed to contribute to the nutrition of their hosts. 

 In Coronympha each cell contains one whorl of nuclei each with its separate neuro- 

 motor system (Kirby, 1929). In Stephanonympha, the nuclei and neuromotor systems 

 are so numerous as to form a spiral band of several cycles in the anterior part of the 

 cell. In Calonympha, besides numerous neuromotor systems associated with nuclei, 

 there are others free of any nucleus; in Snyderella, the two types of structures are 

 independently multiplied. 



Order 4. Hypermastigina Grassi in Atti Accad. Lincei ser. 5, Rendiconti CI. Sci. 

 20, 1° Semestre: 727 (1911). 

 Order Trichonyynphidea Poche in Arch. Prot. 30: 149 (1913). 

 Order Hypermastigida Calkins Biol. Prot. 29"5 (1926). 



Order Lophomonadida Light in Univ. California Publ. Zool. 29: 486 (1927). 

 Orders Joeniidca, Lophomonadina, Trichonymphina, and Spiratrichonym- 

 phina, Grasse Traite Zool. 1, fasc. 1: 837, 851, 862, 916 (1952). 



Flagellates, mostly large and of radial symmetry, with single nuclei and indefi- 

 nitely numerous flagella. Entozoic in roaches and in termites excluding those of 

 family Termitidae. Lophomonas is to be regarded as the type. 



Cleveland (1925, 1926) found it possible, by starvation or by exposure to high 

 pressures of oxygen or high temperatures, to rid insects of all of their intestinal 

 flagellates or of some of the kinds. When completely freed of flagellates, wood roaches 

 and termites of the lower families are able to remain alive only for a few weeks. The 

 life of Termopsis is not prolonged by the presence of Streblomastix, and it is pro- 

 longed only moderately by the presence of Trichomonas Termopsidis. But if infested 

 with either Trichonympha Campanula or T. sphaerica, it can survive indefinitely on 

 a diet of pure cellulose. Both species ingest the ground scraps of wood which reach 

 the part of the intestine in which they occur; it is evident that they serve their hosts 

 as agents of digestion. Cleveland's observations raise unanswered questions as to the 

 occurrence of fixation of nitrogen; it is known only that termites are quite economical 

 in their use of nitrogenous compounds available to them. 



The Hypermastigina have elaborate neuromotor systems. There is regularly a large 

 centroblepharoplast. In what appears to be the relatively primitive type of cell divi- 

 sion, as in Trichonympha (Kofoid and Swezy, 1919), the neuromotor system of the 

 mother cell is divided between the daughter cells. In Spirotrichonympha (Cupp, 

 1930), only the centroblepharoplast divides; the neuromotor system of the mother 

 cell remains attached to one of the daughter centroblcpharoplasts, while the other 

 generates the remaining parts of a complete system. In Lophomonas (Kudo, 1926), 

 and Kofoidia (Light, 1927), the neuromotor system of a dividing cell is absorbed 

 or discarded, with the exception of the centroblcpharoplasts, from which new systems 

 develop. 



In Trichonympha and Spirotrichonympha the details of nuclear division have 

 much the appearance of meiosis. A double set of chromosomes appears, and the 

 chromosomes form pairs which are divided in the spindle. It is supposed that this 

 appearance is produced by a precocious splitting of the chromosomes. 



