PROTOZOA AND OTHER ANIMALS 953 



in France. An organelle of fixation, a slightly concave plate to which a 

 cone of myonemes is related, is developed at the anterior extremity. 

 The ciliate may penetrate into the hepatic cells. The parasitized cell 

 undergoes degenerative vacuolization, which extends to neighboring 

 cells (Cepede and Poyarkoff, 1909). Cysts have been found in the 

 liver (Poyarkoff, 1909); these may persist in the outer medium and in- 

 fect a new molluscan host. 



Another tissue parasite is Orchitophrya s tell arum Cepede, a rare 

 ciliate which was found in 3 of more than 6,000 Asteracanthion ruhens 

 (Cepede, 1910). The infected sea stars were all males, and the ciliates 

 occurred in the gonads, among the reproductive cells. Cepede found 

 that the parasites were well adapted to life in the sea water, underwent 

 no pathological changes, and survived for a long time. In a putrefying 

 genital gland, removed from the starfish, the ciliates lived well after 

 a day and multiplied. In the host, the parasites bring about what Cepede 

 termed partial castration. The ciliate absorbs material in the gonad and 

 transforms the contents by so doing and by adding its waste products; 

 and it also brings about mechanically detachment and degeneration of 

 certain sexual cells. Is Orchitophrya an obligate parasite, or is it an acci- 

 dentally invading free-living type, in which Cepede overlooked the 

 mouth structures.'^ Consideration of instances of accidental parasitism 

 among holotrichs [Glaucoma, Anophrys), as well as of the great in- 

 frequency of the occurrence of Orchitophrya and its ready adaptation to 

 sea water, suggest that the latter may be true. 



Conidiophrys 



One of the most complete accounts of the life history and host rela- 

 tionships of an epibiotic ciliate, which is probably a trichostomatous 

 holotrich, is that of Conidiophrys pilisuctor Chatton and Lwoff, 1934 

 (Fig. 204). In its profound modification in relation to its mode of life, 

 it is approached by no other member of its suborder, and, in fact, by 

 few other ciliates. C. pilisuctor occurs on the secretory hairs, frequently 

 on the thoracic appendages, of a number of freshwater amphipods, espe- 

 cially Corophium acherusicum, in France. A second species, C. guttipotor 

 Chatton and Lwoff, 1936, is attached to the hairs of Sphaeroma s erratum. 

 These ciliates were placed in a new family of Trichostomata, named Pili- 

 suctoridae, by Chatton and Lwoff (1934b), though the International 



