94 



THE ANATOMY OF IXVERTEBRATED ANIMALS. 



usually some other species of Infusorium — when the substance 

 of the latter travels along the interior of the sucker into the 



Fig. 9.—^, Voriicella, active ; B, C, encysted ; Z>, U, F, G, Acinetce (after Stein). 



body of the Acineta. Solid food is not ingested through these 

 tentacles, so that the Acinetce cannot be fed with indigo or 

 carmine. In the interior of tlie body there is an endoplast ^ 

 with one or more contractile vacuoles, and it may be either 

 fixed by a stalk or free. 



The Acinetce multiply by several methods. One of these 

 is simple longitudinal tission, which appears to be rare among 

 them. Another method consists in the development of ciliated 

 embryos in the interior of the body. These embryos result 

 from a separation of a portion of the endoplast, and its con- 



soon as the suckiner disk has bored thronofh the cuticula of the prey, a very 

 rapid stream, indicated by the fatty particles which it carries, sets alon.w the 

 axis of the tentacle, and, at its base, pours into the nei.ofhboring- part of the 

 body of the Acineta. . . . The cause of the movement is unknown. It is not 

 accomnanied bv anv discernible movement of the walls of the tentacle." 



1 No endoplastule, such as exists in other Infusoria, has been observed as 

 yet in the Acinetce. Under some circumstances, the Acinetce draw in their 

 radlatinf? processes, and surround themselves with a structureless cyst ; but 

 this process does not appear to have any relation to either mode of multiplica- 

 tion. 



In Acineta myatacina and Porlopliryafixa, a peculiar mode of multiplication 

 bv division occurs. At the free end of the body a portion becomes constricted 

 otf, together with part of the endoplast, from the remaininsr stalked part. The 

 tentacula are drawn in, and the seirment becoming elongated, develops cilia 

 over its whole surface and swims away. 



