authors' abstract of this paper issukd 

 by the bibliographic service, january 16 



STUDIES ON SPATHIDIUM SPATHULA 



I. THE STEUCTUKE AND BEHAVIOR OF SPATHIDIUM, WITH SPECIAL 

 REFERENCE TO THE CAPTURE AND INGESTION OF ITS PREY 



LORANDE LOSS WOODRUFF AND HOPE SPENCER 



Osborn Zoological Laboratory, Yale, University 



EIGHT TEXT FIGURES AND ONE PLATE (FIGURES NINE TO TWENTY) 



The holotrichoiis infusorian which today bears the name 

 Spathidiiim spathula apparently was first described by Miiller 

 in 1773, and again in 1786 as ''Enchelis cylindrica, apice hyalina 

 spathulata" and designated Enchelis spathula.^ The next ob- 

 servations of importance were those of Ehrenberg- in 1830 and 

 1838, which led him to place the organism in the genus Leuco- 

 phrys as L. spathula. In 1841 Dujardin^ founded the genus 

 Spathidium for an organism which he considered identical with 

 ]Muller's Enchelis spathula, and named it Spathidium hyalinum. 

 Eighteen years later, in his monograph on the Infusoria, Stein^ 

 merely mentioned the organism incidentally, and apparently 

 was of the opinion that it was not specifically distinct from 

 Ehrenberg's Enchelys farcimen, and retained it in the genus 

 Enchelys. Maupas-^ in 1888 recognized the genus Spathidium 

 of Dujardin and the species spathula of Miiller, and thus es- 

 tablished the modern name of the organism, Spathidium spathula. 

 The most recent work on the structure and the first on the 



1 O. F. Miiller, Verraium terrestrium et fluviatilium historia, 1773, p. 38. 

 Animalcula Infusoria fluviatilia et marina, 1786, p. 40, pi. V, fig. 19. 



2 C. G. Ehrenberg, Abhandl. der Akad. d. Wissensch. zu Berlin, 1830, S. 42; 

 1831, S. 105. Die Infusionsthierchen als volkommene Organismen, 1838, S. 312. 



^ F. Dujardin, Histoire naturelle des Zoophytes. Infusoires, 1841, p. 458. 

 ■* F. Stein, Der Organismus der Infusionsthiere, 1859, I. Abtheilung, S. 80. 

 ^ E. Maupas, Sur la multiplication des Infusoires cilies. Arch, de Zool. Exp. 

 et Gen., 1888, (2)4, p. 246. 



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