RESEARCHES IN HELMINTHOLOGY AND PARASITOLOGY. 147 

 [June, 1877. No. 441. See Bibliography.] 



Re?ua>-ks on sonic Parasitic Infusoria. — Prof. L,eidy remarked that 

 most of the known para.sitic infusoria possessed a mouth, as in those 

 which lived free in the waters. Such is the case with the species of 

 Balantidiuni found in the intestinal canal of man, the hog, and 

 various batrachians ; of Nyctot herns, found in the intestine of frogs, 

 several insects, and myriapods, and the Conchop/it/iirns anodontce, 

 often found abundantly in the branchiae and palpi of our Anodon 

 fluviatilis. 



Other parasitic infusoria are not only devoid of an intestinal canal 

 as characteristic of their class, but have no mouth, and, like the tape- 

 worms and Echinorhynchi, absorb nourishment through the exte- 

 rior surface of the body. Such is the case with the genus Anoplo- 

 phrya of Stein, typified hy the Anoplophrya /nmbrica, found in the 

 intestine of our common earthworms, as well as in those of Europe. 

 Prof. Eeidy had also detected the same species in the little wood- 

 worm, Enchytraens socia/is, and had found two other species, for- 

 merly described by him under the names of Lencophrys clavata and 

 luKcophrys coc/i/eariforniis, in the intestine of Lnnibricnlns /in/osns and 

 /,. fen n is. 



Recently in dissecting the fresh-water snail, Paliuiina dcisa, while 

 examining the branchiae he observed several individuals of an Ano- 

 plophrya moving actively, as if in antagonism with the ciliar\' motion 

 of the branchial plates. Seeking the source of the little creatures, he 

 found that they caine from the rectum of the Palndina In examin- 

 ing other individuals of this snail he observed that some were free, 

 others were infested with few and .some with multitudes of the infu- 

 sorian. In several instances the Anoplophryae were so abundant as 

 to resemble in their crowded condition a mass of writhing worms, 

 actually distending the portion of the intestine they occupied. 

 The species appears to be an undescribed one, and is interesting 

 from its comparatively large size. It was named and described as 

 follows : 



Anoplophrya Vermicularis. — Body cylindrical, slightly tapering pos- 

 teriorly, rounded at the extremities, or subacute behind ; flattened 

 at the anterior extremity ; translucent white, finely striated longitu- 

 dinally, uniformly clothed with short cilia ; internally finely granu- 

 lar, with a longitudinal cylindrical nucleus occupying nearly the 

 length of the axis, and with from twenty to thirty contractile vesi- 

 cles, mostly arranged in one, but often in two, longitudinal series. 

 Length from two-fifths to one-half a millimeter ; breadth in front, 

 .044 to .048 mm., behind .032 to .04 mm. 



