6 Transactions of the Society. 



the throat into the stomach of the rotifer. Guilty ! — and without 

 appeal. 



There are a few observations showing that the rotifers occasion- 

 ally use their maxillae as teeth, but only a few, Mr. Gosse men- 

 tions the snapping action of those of Synchseta morclax. Mr. Slack 

 saw a Diglena chase, seize with its jaws, and shake an anguillula 

 that had presumed to jostle it. I have frequently seen Hydatina 

 senta protrude its maxilte, and snatch at some tempting green 

 globule that the cilia could not quite force down the mouth ; and 

 once I saw a small Notommata deliberately snijj the side of the 

 cell of an alga, and suck out its green contents. On this occasion 

 I contrived to see the catching of Vorticellae by Notommata several 

 times, and in each case the Vorticella was seized by the mtifer's 

 maxilliB and its contents so completely appropriated that it was 

 hardly possible to see the delicate film that was left after the opera- 

 tion had taken place. 



Meliceria ringens. — Mr. F. A. Bed well has given a most in- 

 teresting and suggestive account of the building apparatus of this 

 rotifer, in the November number of the ' Monthly Microscopical 

 Journal ' for 1877.* His description of the various currents which 

 pass round and through this apparatus is admirable. To one point 

 alone do I feel inclined to take any exception, and that is, to the 

 separation of the particles into " four deflected streams " by the action 

 of a sensitive cushion above the mastax. I quite agree with Mr. 

 Bedwell that a first selection among the particles whirled round 

 the groove of the disk is made by " two knotty protuberances set 

 symmetrically one against the other " just at the ends of the collect- 

 ing groove, and directly opposite to the chin ; and that from these 

 the main stream of waste material is directed in a great rush over 

 the chin. But I think that the very feeble currents which creej:* 

 along (as Mr. Bedwell has so well described) under the curved 

 edges of his "hopper" admit at least of another explanation. If 

 Meliceria ringens is fed with carmine, and the chin and its append- 

 ages steadily watched, it will be seen that on either side of the swift 

 main stream which carries the waste particles over the chin, runs a 

 feeble current between it and (if I may use the term) the bank ; 

 running, in fact, as already said, under the curved edges of Mr. 

 Bedwell's " hopper," and along what Mr. Cubitt calls the " chases." 

 In these currents are gently carried along such minute particles as 

 are fitted to form the pellet, and they pass over the two notches at 

 the chin into the pellet cup. About these facts I think there can 

 be no doubt. It is the modus operandi only that is in question. 

 It is of course possible that the sensitive cushion described by Mr. 

 Bedwell may, like a skilful batsman, strike the larger particles into 

 the centre of the stream, and the smaller ones to the sides where 

 * 'M. M. J./ vol. xviii. p. 214. 



