OONSTITDTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMITES. 53 



sometimes be found in the eudoplasm of Pyrsonyrapha : 

 their nature is unknown. 



General Notes. 



It seems incredible, even to myself, but it is nevertheless 

 true that, in spite of long and fruitless search, I have 

 never been able to find any of these Protozoa encysted, or 

 evidently in process of reproduction. 



On a single occasion I found two examples of Tricho- 

 nympha agilis fused together by the hinder extremities. 

 They separated under my eyes after being united for an in- 

 stant by a slender thread of hyaline protoplasm. This thread 

 became much attenuated in the middle, and then broke, 

 leaving each of the examples with a peduncle which was quickly 

 retracted. They were of medium size, and both belonged to 

 the form in which the nucleus is situated far forward. 



This may have been either a casual act of fusion, brought 

 about perhaps by the method of preparing for examination, or 

 a process of division. But never having been able to find any 

 other example in similar circumstances, or in any other stage 

 connected with reproduction, I must adopt the former suppo- 

 sition. 



In Dinenympha gracilis I have observed a condition 

 which may be connected with reproductive phenomena. 



Motionless examples are common, with or without food- 

 particles, sometimes full of vacuoles and with the marginal 

 membranes thrown into folds and quiescent, or even absent. 

 The nucleus and skeletal rod appear to be unchanged. 



These examples are attached to the intestinal epithelium, 

 like Gregarines, by a kind of cuticular peduncle arising from 

 the anterior extremity. 



It was not till I had completed these observations on the 

 Protozoa that it occurred to me that they must be ingested in 

 large quantities by the Termitidae with the faeces ; they may 

 possibly pass without encystment into the stomodaeum and 



