Victorian RoUfers. 47 



Among the species described from Australian forms are 

 some very interesting aiiim.als which have a bearing on the 

 question of geographical distribution. Generally the distribu- 

 tion of these animals is regarded as world-wide, and recent 

 discoveries tend to support that opinion. TW of the Aus- 

 tralian species have lately turned up, one, Lacinularia elongata, 

 near Paris, and the other, L. elliptica, in South Africa. There 

 are, however, three species of this orenus still unrecorded else- 

 where, and it is remarkable that they are strikingly conspicuous 

 forms occurring frequently and in great profusion. A considera- 

 tion of these forms and their occurrence certainly suggests their 

 adaptation to conditions of frequently recurring periods of 

 drought, combined with wet intervals, when the power of rapid 

 multiplication becomes a favouring factor. With fuller know- 

 ledge of this portion of our fauna this indication of distinctive- 

 ness may increase, and the thought of such a possibility 

 certainly gives zest to the work of investigation. 



The author is responsible for the identifications, excepting 

 a number kindly supplied by Mr. W. Stickland, whose name is 

 appended in each case. 



Order I.— RHIZOTA. 



Family 1. — Flosculariadae. 



Flosculapia. 

 *7^. coronetta. 

 F. coro7ieUa, ynY. Hudson (The Rotifera, Supp., p. 61), syn. F. 

 tenuilohata, Anderson (Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. 

 Iviii., No. 4, 1889, p. 346). 

 Mr. Rousselet considers F. tenuilohata identical with F. 

 coronetta (Jour. Roy. Micro. Soc, vol. xiii., 1893, p. 451). Com- 

 parison of the figures of these two forms shows that the difierence 

 between them exists chiefly in the form of the knobs at the 

 ends of the lobes of the corona, and that there is agreement in 

 regard to the lobes being of equal thickness down to their 

 bases, instead of widening as in Hudson's figure of F. coronetta. 

 The two are much closer in agreement with each other than 

 either of them is with F. coronetta. Adopting Rousselet's 



