80 E. H. STRICKLAND 
for the stomenteron and proctenteron are rather heavily lined 
with chitin, which would repel any attacks of the unarmed germ 
which escapes from the spore. In order that the filament may 
be expelled previous to the escape of the germ it is necessary 
that the spore be acted upon by some dehydrating, or similar 
reagent, such as is found in the digestive juices of its host. 
Biitschli (82) kept spores for a long time in water and noticed 
that there was no change in them. This is also the case with 
the spores from Simulium larvae which I kept for two months in 
water, at the end of which period they had undergone no change. 
Rare instances of spores dehiscing while still in the body of the 
original host have been described by Lieberkiihn (54) and Simond 
(03), but these are exceptional. 
The germ, then, is liberated in the mesenteron of a young 
larva. If, according to the theory explained above, the peritro- 
phic membrane has not been completely formed at this time, 
it is able to come in direct contact with the mesenteric epithelium 
and to work its way in amoeboid fashion between the cells till 
it escapes into the body cavity of its host. If, on the other hand, 
the peritrophic membrane already completely lines the entire 
mesenteron and proctenteron it seems that the minute germ must 
pass straight through the intestines and be voided with the faeces. 
In this way I would explain, as before stated, the absence of any 
indications’ of parasitisation being effected in any but the earliest 
stages of larval life. 
The young germ, after entering the body cavity, lives freely in 
the blood plasma, but does not, probably, multiply by division 
as does that of N. bombycis Nag. (Stempell ’09), and where 
several myxosporidia are present in one host these must, it would 
seem, be considered as separate infections, except in the case of 
Glugea multispora in which so many myxosporidia sometimes 
occur that it would seem to indicate some such multiplication. 
The germ attacks a cell of the fat body. Evidence of this is 
shown in many cases where the walls of these cells are seen still 
surrounding small irregularities of the myxosporidium (pl. 2, fig. 
3). Here the germ loses its motility and a constant (binary?) 
division of the nucleus begins, which continues throughout the 
