TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE, 



18 8 7. 



I.— Z OOLOGY. 



Art. I. — On the Freshwater Infusoria of the Wellington District. 

 By W. M. Maskell, F.R.M.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 30th November, 1887.] 



Plates I., II., III., IV. 



The following paper is in continuation of that published in vol. 

 xix. of the " Transactions," and contains some of the observa- 

 tions made since last year by the Microscopical Section of the 

 Wellington Philosophical Society, Messrs. W. F. Barraud, A. 

 Brandon, C. P. Powles, T. W. Kirk, and the writer. 



As before, the work has been strictly confined to " fresh- 

 water"' types. Most of the animals herein considered as new 

 belong to recognised genera : the exception being Thurophora 

 hicens, which seemed undoubtedly to present sufficiently clear 

 generic differences. 



In the " Journal of the Boyal Microscopical Society " for 

 February, 1887, Professor A. C. Stokes, of New Jersey, in an 

 account of some new American Infusoria, remarks that it is rare 

 to find in America forms which are also found in European 

 fresh water. The experience of the compilers of the present 

 paper leads to quite the contrary view, as regards the New Zea- 

 land animalcules. Probably the ambition of every " systematic " 

 observer in any branch of Zoology or Botany is to discover some 

 new species : and this, laudable as it doubtless is to a proper 

 extent, has unfortunately led to a multiplication of specific dis- 

 tinctions and names, often on the slenderest grounds, which 

 subsequent investigation will have to largely diminish, at some 

 trouble to students. The members of the Wellington Microsco- 

 pical Section have steadily endeavoured to resist this tendency, 

 believing that much less error and confusion will result by 

 neglecting the frequently most minute differences from Euro- 

 pean types observable in almost every Infusorian examined. 

 Examples of this may be found in such forms as Rhipidodendron 



