654 DESCRIPTION OF [^Folyffastrica. 



(Zeitschift f. Wisscnschaft, Zoologie von V. Siebold, and KoUiker, 

 1849.) He docs not admit the existence of a mouth, but supposes 

 particles of food to enter the body at any part, by means of the 

 pressure exerted by them on its integuments, tlirough the agency 

 chiefly of the radiating fibres compressing them. Dr. Stein, on the 

 contrary, asserts that no foreign matters are ever found within the 

 interior of Actmophrt/s. Actinophrys is closely allied to Acineta ; 

 some of the forms of the latter found by Dr. Stein, are scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from the former; like which, too, they possess a 

 nucleus and contractile vesicle. 



Dujardin further remarks, " Ehrenberg has placed the Actino- 

 phryem, although wanting cilia, among the Enchelia, all of which arc 

 famished with those organs, and he attributes to them a mouth, di- 

 gestive canal, and anus, notwithstanding his having failed to feed 

 them on coloiured substances. His grounds for such disposition of 

 these animals, are, that by their processes (tentacula) they afiix 

 themselves to other beings, which, by contact with their surface, they 

 seem to absorb. At the same time he inserts the Acineta at the end 

 of the family Bacillaria, and as an appended genus. However, 

 during the printing of his work, he discovered the allied genus 

 Dendrosoma, and was then led to the belief that Podophrya, Acti- 

 nophrys, and Acineta, should be combined with that new genus in a 

 distinct family, which he proposed to name Acinetina." This, save 

 in the definition, would nearly correspond to the ActinopJiryetis of 

 Dujardin. The Actino2)hryens are found both in fresh and salt 

 water, among Algae and Confervas, but not in artificial infusions. 



Actinophrys sol {Trichoda sol, M.) — Body of a whitish colour, 

 of a flat pancake form ; the rays diverge from every part of its 

 body, and in length about equal the diameter of the body. Ehrenberg 

 says, " The rays or tentacles serve to feel, to move, and to catch." 

 Meyen states he has seen the rays, or tentacles, when cut oif, twist 

 themselves, but Ehrenberg considers that eminent botanist to have 

 mistaken Vibrio bacillus for them, which is mostly present with this 

 species. The mouth is large and round, and has a jjroboscis. Eick- 

 horn appears to have seen much larger forms, which could be seen 

 with the naked eye, and found within them whole (!) forms of small 



