FOOD-REACTIONS OF PELOMYXA 387 



October 19, and had been kept .since then in a hanging drop of 

 spring water. The advancing rhizopod moved by a Crypto- 

 monas which lay quite remote from the ' right' side of Pelomyxa 

 as indicated (fig. 6, g). To our surprise the blunt pseudopod 

 of the 'right' side of the body, which, heretofore, had shown no 

 streaming, began to form a relatively narrow outgrowth, 

 which advanced and curved in to contour a, and continued, 

 curving about the Cryptomonas g until it had formed a widened 

 overarching end b that lay along side of the body proper. In 

 the meantime a short pseudopod, a', flowed out towards elongat- 

 ing pseudopod a, meeting it and passing by its outer margin. 

 When b contour had been formed pseudopod a' ceased its 

 streaming movement and later was withdrawn into the main 

 body of the animal. Two foreign particles were held in inti- 

 mate contact between two opposite streams of protoplasm as 

 b passed down along a'. (.These two particles were later re- 

 jected as non-food when the unwinding of b and a took place.) 

 Three small, upward projecting pseudopods, c, c' and c" next 

 appeared. Pseudopod b continued to widen as it advanced 

 to overarch, in part, the Cryptomonas and resulted in the ap- 

 proximate contour e-e. The overarching protoplasm was further 

 extended by the appearance of pseudopods d and d'. These 

 various over-arching protoplasmic processes further expanded 

 and had their margins fuse, so that the little green plant was 

 now enclosed between the surface film of the drop of water 

 below and an inverted saucer-like film of protoplasm above. 

 Pseudopod / arose as the margins of a, b, c, c' ', d, d', and e-e 

 were fusing but it was at once withdrawn. Little forward 

 movement was shown by the Pelomyxa while this saucer-like 

 arch of protoplasm was being formed over the Cryptomonas; 

 but when the saucer was completed the animal advanced 

 and in passing by the involved mass of protoplasm partially 

 unwound a and b so as to free the two foreign particles that had 

 been caught between b and a' . The Cryptomonas now showed 

 great agitation and vainly sought to escape as the space within 

 which it had been entrapped was being reduced. By the time 

 the mass of protoplasm containing the prey had reached the 



THE JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY, VOL. 24, NO. 2 



