THE PAEDOGAMOUS CONJUGATION OF BLEPHAR- 



ISMA UNDULANS ST. 



GARY N. CALKINS 

 From the Department of Zoology, Columbia University 



TWENTY-FIVE PIGUEES 



The genus Blepharisma was created by Perty in 1849-1852 

 with the following diagnostic characters: Body flat, lancet- 

 shaped, pointed posteriorly and ending anteriorly in a short 

 snout (Schnabel); the deeply incised region extending from 

 the anterior end to about the middle of the body is provided 

 with a row of long straight cilia arranged in parallel lines. 

 'Molecular rows' bearing extremely fine cilia, difficult to see, 

 are borne by the remainder of the body. Two species were 

 described as new, B. hyalinum, a colorless form, and B. per- 

 sicinum, a reddish colored form. The latter he regarded as 

 possibly the same as Miiller's Trichoda striata. 



Ehrenberg ('31) in the meantime described a form under 

 the name of Bursaria lateritia which he identified as the same 

 as Miiller's Trichoda ignita, having a distinct reddish color, 

 compressed body and with a characteristic shape of a garden 

 knife. 



Stein ('67) described the genus in detail, including as 

 synonyms Miiller's Trichoda striata, aurantiaca, and ignita, 

 Bursaria lateritia of Ehrenberg, and Ypsistoma of Bory, and 

 characterized two species as follows : 



1. B. lateritia: .Body peach color, purple-red or tile-red, 

 occasionally colorless. The peristome reaches as far as the 

 middle of the body or beyond this point, with a free-standing 

 bristle-like undulating membrane attached close in front of 

 the peristome angle. The nucleus is a single oval body in the 

 anterior half of the organism. 



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