78 W. MILNE ON THE 



seen notMng like it in any other Bdelloid. The wall is not rigid, 

 nor strong enough to prevent it wrinkling when empty. It 

 evidently discharges the contents under the shock of being placed 

 on the slide, but before the slide can be examined all the speci- 

 mens, perhaps dozens, are feeding vigorously, and soon are 

 practically buried under a cloud of floccose matter. In less than 

 a quarter of an hour the stomachs are all showing up as regular 

 ovals, fully as broad as one-half the trunk width, each oval perfect 

 and extending from mast ax to intestine. Sometimes when In- 

 fusoria are devouring the contents of a dead specimen, the stomach 

 and intestine, then evidently rigid, can be seen being knocked 

 about, like a full-blown bladder with a smaller one attached, the 

 walls quite distinct with a narrow connection between the two. 

 This connection seems to be a thick muscular stricture of the 

 walls of the stomach and intestine. When the stomach empties, 

 the walls sag in ; and when feeding again takes place, the walls 

 behave pretty much as those of an elongated bladder when being 

 slowly filled with air. After being a few hours on the slide the 

 animals grow sluggish, seldom move away from their position 

 and feed little. Some I could persuade to begin feeding at once 

 by the addition of a little water. 



It is a steady, fairly fast creeper, and with long strides plants 

 its foot well under the head, and without any jerking. 



The rostrum is short, but not particularly so. The lamella is 

 double, but not very prominent, and being very diaphanous is 

 not easily seen. There is a raised part surrounding the antenna, 

 and sloping down to the lateral borders of the segment, and the 

 antenna protrudes only a short distance outside this. 



There is a large wide brain mass. The teeth are quite large, 

 widely separated, and easily defined. In no specimen did I 

 ever see any departure from three as the number of teeth. 



The trunk and rump are granulate with not very large granules, 

 which are pellucid or pearly-looking and accordingly not very 

 conspicuous, nor difficult to overlook. These granules are not 

 very close together and are rather irregularly arranged. 



The lumbar region is fairly heavy, but not swollen-looking, and 

 the contained contractile vesicle is round and very large ; and 

 when expanded fills up practically the whole of the anal segment. 

 The spurs are very small and very divergent. In some positions, 

 the interspace forms practically a straight line with the inferior 



