NEW SPECIES OF BEAR-ANIMALCULE FROM THE 

 COAST OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



By W. P. Hay, 



Of the Washington (Diftfr-ict of Columbia) High Schools. 



For many years the presence of marine species of tardigrades, or 

 bear animalcules, on the coasts of Europe has been known to the scien- 

 tific world. In 1851 Dujardin described^ a remarkable, very minute 

 species, now known as Microhjda dujaxd'mi (Plate), which had 

 been discovered two years previously at St. Malo, in northern France. 

 In 18G5 Schultze described ^ the species now known as Echiniscoides 

 sigismundl (Schultze) which he had found at Ostend. In 1892 

 Cucnot found at Roskoff, in northern France, a species which he de- 

 scribed^ under the name Tetrakentron synaptae^ the creature being a 

 parasite of Synapta inhaerens. In 1904 Prof. F. Richters discovered 

 at Kiel and at Bergen, respectively, tv,'o marine species of the genus 

 Macrohiotus to which he gave the names Macrohiotus sienostoinus 

 and M. appellbfi *. In 1907 the same indefatigable student of these 

 microscopic animals, while working at Cancale, found another tardi- 

 grade which he described ^ as 11 alechiniscus gidtell and in 1909, at 

 Kiel, still another to which he gaA'e the name Batillipes miriis.^ 



Having kept in touch with the literature of this group it appeared 

 probable to the writer that some of these animals should appear on 

 the American Atlantic coast, and at the first opportunity a search for 

 them was begun. During the summer of 1911, while engaged, at 

 Beaufort, North Carolina, in the study of the decapod crustaceans of 

 the region, material was collected from time to time and examined for 

 tardigrades. The material, as a rule, consisted of the washings from 

 masses of seaweed, but occasionally the ooze from various parts of 

 the harbor was obtained. Finally, on September G, some washings 

 from a large patch of Dictyota were examined and were found to 

 contain hundreds of tardigrades belonging to the genus Batillipes. 



»Ann. Scl. Nat., ser. 3, vol. 10, pp. 158-173, 



*Arch. f. mikro. Anat., vol. 1, p. 428. 



' Rev. Biol, (lu Nord <le la France, vol. 5, p. IC, pi. 1. 



*Zool. Anzelg., vol. 33, p. 84. 



» Idem, p. 81. 



•Ber. der Senckenb. Naturf. Gesell., 1909, p. 37, pi. 2. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol, 53-2203. 



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