JOURNAL 



OF THE 



ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



FEBKUAEY, 1879. 



TEANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



I. — On (Ecistes umbella and other Botifers. 

 By C. T. Hudson, M.A., LL.D., V.P.E.M.S. 



(Read 11th December, 1878.) 

 Plates I. and II. 



This remarkable new species was discovered by Mr. F. Oxley 

 last June in a pond at Snaresbrook. Mr. Oxley was so kind 

 as to send me several specimens, but I was unfortunately pre- 

 vented from giving them all the attention they so well deserved ; 

 and though I made some sketches of this (Ecistes, I was unable to 

 investigate its structure and habits in the way that I should have 

 wished to do. 



It is a large handsome species, and the specimens sent to me 

 had made their clay-coloured fluffy homes on the leaves and in 

 the axils of a sphagnum. The tubes, if I may call such loose 

 structures by so precise a name, resemble those of the rotifer I 

 described as Melicerta tyro ; but which I think had better be 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 



Plate I. 



(Ecistes umbella. 

 Fig. 1. — A group of three. 

 „ 2. — Disk of (E. umbella. 

 „ 3. — Disk of (E. crystalUnus. 



Plate II. 



Conochilus volvox. 

 Fig. 1. — A cluster. 



2. — An individual, a, spermatozoa on ovary ; b, extremity of anus. 



3. — Spermatozoa (two forms). 



4. — Extremity of anus. 



5. — "Winter egg in ovary (various stages). 



6. — Winter egg (final stage). 



7. — Male in egg. 



8.— Eye. 

 VOL. II. B 



