242 Dr C. Vogt on the Animalcules of the Bed Snow, 



This animal, known under the name of MacroMotus, has usu- 

 ally the intestine filled with several organisms met with in the 

 red snow, and is that which gives it a red hue, whilst its natu- 

 ral colour is a light brown. 



6. The most interesting animal of the red snow is a Roti- 

 fer, a variety oi Philodina roseola, Ehr. We met with it abun- 

 dantly in the snow of the lower glacier of the Aar. Having 

 remarked that the ovary was of a much deeper colour than 

 the other parts of the body, I directed my attention especially 

 to this organ, and I was not long before I perceived eggs in 

 different periods of development. The young eggs were per- 

 fectly round, and of a deep red hue, absolutely similar to the 

 globules of Protococcus, described and figured by Shuttle- 

 worth, in his fig. 2. I also found eggs with a thin transparent 

 covering, furnished on all sides with small pointed projections. 

 After a time, others were also observed, of a larger size, but 

 similar in form to those figured by Ehrenberg, and ready to 

 be deposited. The great similarity of the immature eggs with 

 the globules of Protococcus figured by Shuttleworth, attracted 

 our attention, so much so, that at the moment the idea sug- 

 gested itself, that these globules were generated by the Phi- 

 lodina, and are to be found in the glandular appendages of the 

 intestines. To assure myself of this, I fed some Philodinas 

 with indigo, and by this I distinctly ascertained that the glo- 

 bules in question were situated exterior to the intestinal 

 canal. But as very many of these same globules were found 

 isolated in the snow, it became a matter of doubt whether 

 those were the eggs of Philodina, or really those of Protococ- 

 cus. I soon found the solutit)n of this problem by observing 

 one of the Philodinas in the act of voiding the eggs ; from 

 that time it was evident that these animals do not always de- 

 posit eggs fully formed, but that they give out occasionally 

 some not perfectly developed, and these are doubtless the glo- 

 bules which, up to the present time, having been considered 

 as those of Protococcus, are really animal organisms, the eggs 

 of Philodina. When they are of a rosaceous tinge, I look 

 upon them as winter-eggs, analogous to those of many of the 

 Rotiferae, which Ehrenberg has figured at their full develop- 

 ment. I afterwards met with these several forms of eggs to- 



