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.—^, Vorticella, active ; B, C, encysted ; Z>, E, F, G, Acinetoe (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 the body there is an eiidoplast ^ 

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

 fixed by a stalk or free. 



The Acinetoe multiply by several methods. One of these 

 is simple longitudinal fission, 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 suckinsr disk has bored through tlie cuticuhT of the prey, a very 

 rapid stream, indicated by the fatty particles which it carries, sets along the 

 axis of the tentacle, and, at its base, pours into the neighboring part of the 

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

 accompanied bv any disceniible movement of the walls of the tentacle." 



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

 yet in the Aci7ietcv. Under some circumstances, the Aclnftm draw in their 

 radiating 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 mystacina and Podophrya fixa, a peculiar mode of multiplication 

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

 off, together with part of the endoplast, from the remaining stalked part. The 

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

 over its whole surface and swims awav. 



