PSEUDOSPORA VOLVOCIS, CIENKOWSKI. 219 
Some Pseudospora, usually transparent radial individuals, 
adopt a peculiar amoeboid form which has eruptive lobopod 
pseudopodia. I have never seen this except in cultures where 
the radial form predominated, and then only when most of the 
Volvox had been destroyed. It is quite possible that this is 
merely a pathological form due, perhaps, to the protoplasm 
becoming more fluid. This form occurs very rarely, but has 
been seen too often to be passed over without mention. 
Lire History anp Hasits. 
The amoeboid Pseudospora (A) may conveniently be taken 
as the starting point of the life history. This form is found 
in the Volvox colony, it creeps about on the outside, finally 
boring its way into the interior. The creature feeds upon 
the Volvox individuals either by surrounding them with broad 
protoplasmic processes or by engulfing them bodily. Some- 
times a long pseudopodium is seen to surround a Volvox cell 
which is at some distance from the main part of the body ; 
the food particle is then either digested at the end of the 
pseudopodium or is passed along it into the interior of the 
animal. 
Pseudospora individuals collect in masses round the young 
broke up, setting free the granules which now moved rapidly about. In 
many cases the granules were in very active motion inside the Pseudospora 
for a considerable time before it disintegrated. When seen with the ordinary 
powers of the microscope, I took this process to be some form of spore 
formation. On referring to Dallinger and Drysdale’s work on the life history 
of Monads, I found that the process of spore formation there described 
appeared to be very similar to what 1 had observed in Pseudospora. Under 
the three-millimeter immersion objective, the granules appeared rod-shaped, 
and were seen to move in straight lines; while progressing they turned slowly 
on their longitudinal axes. 
In view of Schaudinn’s recent work on Trypanosoma the bacteria-like 
appearance of the particles was not in itself sufficient ground for attributing 
the phenomenon to the agency of parasites. Finally, however, after searching 
carefully through the cultures where these individuals were seen, 1 found that 
the rod-shaped bodies entered from the outside and multiplied so as to 
form a dense mass absorbing the protoplasm of the Pseudospora. They 
are, beyond doubt, parasitic bacteria. 
