51 THE ROTIFEEA. 



well marked separation between the body and foot, tlie latter looking as if it possessed 

 only half the width of the body, at the line of junction. 



F. amhigiia was discovered by Mr. J. Hood in May 1881 on a leaf of Sphagnum, in a 

 mossy pool on Tent's Muir, Fife. Its habits are the reverse of those of F. longicaudata. 

 It selects for its post the axil of a plant, or the under surface of a leaf, especially of a well- 

 curled one ; so that it is diflicult to find a specimen that can be easily studied from 

 various points of view. Thus placed as it were in ambush, the burly Floscule draws, 

 with its powerful ciliai'y wreath, all lands of organisms into its coronal cup. Nothing 

 seems to come amiss to it, and its appetite never fails. Mr Hood has seen it devour the 

 young of (Echtcs inhda, and of CE. umbcUa ; as well as other free swinnning Rotifera, 

 along with all kinds of Infusoria ; so that, to use his own vigorous language, "it would eat 

 its own weight in three hours." The same observer has twice seen the male hatched 

 from the egg laid in the tube ; and noticed the motion of its spermatozoa in the sperm- 

 sac. 



Leiiijth. From ^V to :,V inch. Habitat. Lochs aiul marsh pools ; Forfar, Fife, 

 Perth I J.H.J ; near Birmingham (T.B.) ; Woolston pond (P.n.G.) ; sometimes abundant. 



F. ALcacoLA, Hudson, sp. nov. 

 (PI. I. fig. :5 ; PI. n. fig. 1.) 



BP. CH. Very small ; corona prcciscbj that of F. amhigua, hut ornamented icith dots 

 arranged in symmetrical jMttcrns ; tube, if present, undistimjuishahle. 



This pretty little Eotiferon is very like F. amhigua, differing but little from it except 

 in its ornamented corona, small size, and strange dwelling-place. Its coronal cup is 

 ornamented on the outside with minute dots, arranged in a symmetrical pattern, as 

 shown in PI. II. figs. \a, \b. It makes its home in a parasitic growth {Gloiotrichia 

 pisnm ') on the stems of water plants. Possibly it may in this way avoid the necessity 

 of making a tube, as the parasitical spliere that it lives in seems to consist chiefly 

 of a kind of grey mucus ; but I could not be certain whether it had a tube or not : Mr. 

 (iosse searched with great care, but could see none. 



This Rotifcron was found first by Mr. J. Hood in 1882, at Rosemont Loch, Blairgowrie. 

 It was then very aliundniit. 



Length, ,,'- inch. Habitat. Lochs, Perth \J.ll.) : not connnoji. 



F. TiuLoiiATA, Collins. 



il'l. 11. fig. G.) 



Flnscularia Irilobata . . . Collins, Science Gossip, .Jan. 1S72, p. 0, with fifi. 

 Floscularia trifolium . . . lliulson, .y. Roy. il/tc)\ 6'oc. 2 Scr. vol. i. 18yl, p. 4, pi. ii. 



8P. C'll. Lobes three, large, broadly curved, separated by very deep and similarly 

 curved depressions : ioissil \o\>e rather the largest; setss forming a continuous double 

 fringe round Hie entire circumference of the corona; the outer row arranged like those of 

 F. campanulata ; the inner row short, slightly curved, and arranged like cilia. 



This large and elegant Floscule was discovered by Dr. F. Collins in 18G5, in a small 

 pool near Sandhurst, Berks ; and he published a short account of it, with a figure [loc. 

 cit.) in 1872. It was afterwards found by Mr. J. Hood, in Loch Liuidie, near Dundee, 

 in 1880 ; and I published a description of it {loc. cit.) naming it F. trifolium, as I had 

 considerable doubt of its really being Dr. Collins' species. I have since seen the 

 description and figures wliich Dr. Collhis sent, with some live specimens, to Mr. Gosse 

 iji 1805 ; and I have now no doubt that F. trifolium and F. trilobata arc the same. 



' Kiiullj ilk ntilictl by Pr. Cooke in a letter to Mr. Gosse. 



