360 ORDER CHOANO-FLAGELLATA. 



Lagenoeca cuspidata, S. K. Pl. III. Fig. 25. 



Lorica amber-coloured, flask-shaped, compressed, widest posteriorly and 

 there ornamented with one long axial and four shorter, subequal and 

 evenly disposed, peripheral, mucronate spines ; contained animalcule flask- 

 shaped, inflated posteriorly, produced anteriorly in a neck-like manner, 

 protruding some little distance beyond the orifice of the lorica, filling 

 posteriorly the greater portion of the cavity of this structure. Length of 

 lorica 1-4000". Hab. — Pond water. 



The single example of this species hitherto encountered was discovered by the 

 author in December 187 1 in pond water containing Codosiga botrytis, Salpingoeca 

 amp/wndium, and Bicosoeca lacustris. The contained zooid, apart from its lorica, 

 was indistinguishable both in form and size from that of Salpingmca amphoridium, 

 the anterior, and in this case protruding, collar-bearing region being in the same 

 way narrowly prolonged in a neck-like form, although there was in this instance 

 no corresponding conformity in the shape of the lorica. This assumption of a 

 clavate or flask-shaped outUne in the zooid independent of a similar one in the 

 contour of the lorica, appears to be of common occurrence among the members of 

 the Salpingoecidffi. The lorica itself was of a pale amber colour and ornamented at its 

 base with five sharply pointed projecting spines, conveying to the observer an aspect 

 remarkably suggestive of one of the many varieties of flask-shaped shells distinctive 

 of the genus Lagena among the Foraminifera. Although so scantily represented 

 in the present treatise, it is highly probable that a more extended investigation will 

 demonstrate a greatly varied and extensive distribution of free-swimming loricate 

 types referable to this generic group. 



Genus III. POLYCECA, S. K. 



(Greek, /^/VJ-, many; oikeo, to ina bit.) 



Collar-bearing, flagellate, loricate animalcules, similar to those of Salpin- 

 gceca, but forming by the serial conjunction of their respective loricae a more 

 or less extensive branching colony-stock or polythecium. 



This genus bears the same relation to Salpmgceca that Codosiga does to Monosiga, 

 being the compound expression through the continued fission without complete 

 separation of the preceding simpler types. Only one species, an inhabitant of salt 

 water, has been so far discovered. 



Polyoeca dichotoma, S. K. Pl. III. Figs. 27, 28, and Pl. V. Fig. 20. 

 Loricse of polythecium urceolate, pedicellate, tapering posteriorly, slightly 

 constricted at a distance of one-third of the total length from the anterior 

 margin, and then widening out to their greatest diameter ; pedicles of each 

 separate lorica straight, slender, varying from the same to two or three times 

 the length of the latter structure ; contained animalcules ovate, occupying 

 respectively about one-half of the cavities of the loricje ; contour of poly- 

 thecium subdichotomous, each zooid usually giving rise by transverse fission 

 to two new ones which attach themselves to opposite sides of the parent 

 lorica. Length of separate lorica 1-2500". Hab. — Saltwater. 



The compound polythecium of this very elegant and as yet single known represen- 

 tative of the genus Polyo:ca may be most aptly compared to a number of zooids of 



