1884.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 293 



of the Schuylkill River above the Spring Garden Water Works, 

 Pliiladelijhia, a dozen or more rhizopods of varying sizes, appar- 

 ently quite motionless, and, by direct illnmination, resembling 

 the familiar forms of Actinophrys or Actinosphrerinm. 



When removed to a compressorium and examined by trans- 

 mitted light, however, entirely different characteristics were 

 discovered. An outer surface or test was composed of infinite 

 numbers of minute, smooth, curved spicules, gathered somewhat 

 irregularly into radial, acuminate, conical groups, giving to the 

 mass very nearly the appearance of the seed-balls of the sweet- 

 gum tree, Liqiddambe?- atyracifiua. Within the cavity of this 

 spicular envelope, was seen a spherical protoplasmic body, 

 perhaps one-third of the diameter of the outer test, composed of 

 a multitude of granuliferous cells and a single non-central nucleus. 

 From this " body," many pseudopodal filaments were thrown out 

 through the interstices amongst the spicules, in direct radial 

 lines, to a distance exceeding the height of the spicular cones. 

 They were not constant, however, and at intervals none could be 

 discovered. To test the character of the spiculae, one individual 

 was treated with strong nitric acid and afterwards mounted in 

 balsam. The protoplasmic body was of course destroyed, but 

 the spicules remained, showing them to be, in all probability, 

 composed of siliceous material. 



The speaker was at first inclined to class this rhizopod with 

 the genus Acanthocystis^ but further examination convinced him 

 that it was more probably allied to Baphidiophrys, and a still 

 further examination of F, E. Schultze's papers on the Rhizopodae 

 warrants its complete identification with his Raphidiop)hryH 

 pallida. In his recent monograph upon this subject. Professor 

 Leidy has referred to this species his sketch of a single individual 

 likewise collected, some years ago, in the Schuylkill River. These 

 appear to be the onl}- instances in which it has been identified on 

 this continent. Its habit of l^nng close against a supporting 

 surface, seldom or never freely swimming, easilj^ distinguishes it 

 from other familiar Heliozoans. 



Note on the Intelligence of a Cricket parasitised by a Gordius. 

 — Dr. Henry C. McCook said that some remarks upon the habits 

 of the cricket published by him, had called forth an interesting 

 communication from Mrs. C. W. Conger, of Groton, New York 

 the substance of which is as follows : — 



" Some twenty-four years ago, my husband and myself took 

 possession of a large old frame house on a farm which was a 

 homestead for the largest, blackest, and most musical of the 

 cricket kind. Early in the fall, I began to be annoyed b}^ finding 

 one or more hair snakes in the water-pail. Though I knew that 

 there positively was nothing of the kind in the pail when it came 

 in, yet a few minutes or an hour generally provided us with a 

 more or less lively specimen. I had a horror of them, because 



