210 Dr C. Vogt on the Animalcules of the Bed Snow. 



1. The Infusoria called Astasia nivalis by Shuttle vvortli, see 

 the thu'd fig. in his plate.* It is easily distinguished by its 

 pyriform shape, and the rapidity of its movements. With the 

 exception of the very small white vesicles situate in the in- 

 terior of the body, which look like stomachs, Shuttlevvorth has 

 not given a description of the structure of the animalcule. 

 Numerous observations have satisfied me that it is enveloped 

 in a carapace which encases the whole, and is only open at 

 the anterior extremity. This opening is furnished with nu- 

 merous small cilia, serving both as organs of locomotion and 

 prehension. It is doubtless at this point that the m6uth is 

 situate, the position of which is indicated by an orange-coloured 

 tint, which is clearer than the rest of the animal. The pre- 

 sence of the carapace, together with the cilia, are characters 

 which do not allow this animal to be placed with Astasia as 

 Shuttleworth has done ; on the contrary, it ought to be placed 

 in the family Peridinia, which Ehrenberg thus characterises ; 

 Animal distinctly, or to all appearance polygastric^ without 

 intestinal canals having a carapace, rcith hairs or cilia scattered 

 over the body, or on the carapace, often in the form of a girdle 

 or crown, provided with a single aperture in the carapace, and 



furnished with vibratile organs. It ought otherwise to be re- 

 garded as the type of a new genus, characterised by the ab- 

 sence of a groove in the carapace, and also that the stiff hairs 

 are replaced by soft cilia, which is not found in any other ge- 

 nus of the family. 



2. The Gyges sanguineus of Shuttleworth, see his fig. 4. 

 I will add, to complete the description given to this animal 

 by the author, that I have frequently noticed, in those indivi- 

 duals in motion (Shuttleworth could only have seen dead indi- 

 viduals), the orange-coloured organs occupied the space be- 

 tween the carapace and the body, and which I believe to be 

 the retractile lips (levres). The animal moves slowly, although 

 directed in every case. But that which distinguishes it above 

 all, is its mode of reproduction ; it gives off from several parts 

 of its body small transparent buds, apparently vesicular, and 

 for the most part filled with a grenue substance. As they en- 

 large, they are detached more or less from the body of the 



* This plato tho reader will find in Shuttleworth's Memoir in our 29th 

 volume. — JblDiT. 



