9.50 D. WARD CUTLER 
Lrvinc CONDITION. 
Movement and General Appearance. 
P. pristinaisat once striking because of its great swimming 
power, exceeding that of any other protozoon of this termite. 
In living preparations it is a very pleasing sight to observe 
these animals gliding across the field of view, thrusting away 
with their anterior flagella the numerous wood particles and 
other protozoa impeding their progress. This gliding move- 
ment, too, is characteristic, resembling that of many of the 
large ciliates, and doubtless is due to the whole body being 
supplied with flagella, the anterior of which are probably the 
main propelling organs, as in Trichonympha cam- 
panula described by Kofoid and Swezy (18). During pro- 
gression the whole of the animal’s body revolves on its longitu- 
dinal axis, but the direction of revolution is not constant, 
sometimes occurring clockwise, at others counter-clockwise. 
The whole of the body with the exception of the extreme 
anterior and posterior extremities is covered with flagella, 
very little differentiated, except that those arisig from 
the peculiar tube-like organ at the anterior end—to be 
described later—are a little longer than the rest, being 14-16 p 
in length, while the remainder are about 12. Also these 
anterior flagella are much more active durimg progression. 
When the animal is stationary, however, the flagella still 
show movement, the majority independently, but the anterior 
ones in such harmony that they appear as paired thick bands 
in whip-like undulation. I was unable to find any indication 
of a prehensible function in the posterior flagella as described 
by Kent (15) and Porter (24). The continuous movement of 
the flagella, even though the animal is at ‘rest’, has been 
described in T. campanula by Kofoid; doubtless the 
function is to keep the body bathed in the intestinal fluid of 
the termites. In shape the animal is almost oval, but there 
is a gradual tapering from the anterior to the rounded posterior 
extremity. There is no sharp demarcation into ectoplasm 
and endoplasm except at the anterior end, where the proto- 
