The Microscope. 2G5 



The oral aperture is nearly apical. It is surrounded by an 

 annular elevation, and apparently ciliated, essentially as in Chceto- 

 notus. The nearly straight and extremely muscular oesophagus is 

 triangular internally when not expanded, the organ extending through 

 the head and neck to terminate in the digestive cavity, a large, ovate, 

 sac-like part almost completely filling the body-region proper. The 

 oesophagus has a snapping movement similar to that of the same part 

 in Chcetonotus. The food is engulfed by suction, comparatively 

 large and living infusoria and organic particles being equally 

 acceptable. When the food enters the anterior part of the oesophagus 

 it is urged backward and forward several times as if it were being 

 tested before being accepted. Above and on the sides of the diges- 

 tive sac is indistinctly visible what I take to be the ovary. The egg 

 I have not seen in any stage of ovarian development. 



Recently in a shallow wayside pool, swimming among confer- 

 void algae I have abundantly found a beautiful and undescribed 

 species of Chcelonotus which I have named Chcetonotus formosus, 

 sp. nov. The dorsal, lateral and ventro-lateral aspects are clothed 

 with short, fine, recurved set?e arranged in quincuncial order, 

 and each rising directly from the cuticular surface, with a slight 

 basal enlargement, but without the intervention of scale-like thicken- 

 ings. These sette are all sub-equal in length, measuring -^-^-qq inch 

 or less, those on the head and neck being somewhat stouter than 

 those on other parts. The head is tri-lobed, the lateral lobes being 

 prominent and rounded, the anterior one flattened frontally and 

 bearing a small plate or cephalic shield. The flattened ventral surface 

 bears two ciliary bands, the intervening surface being hispid with 

 fine, recurved setpe. The cilia about the oral aperture are chiefly as 

 in other forms, and the oral annulus is minutely monilated. The 

 caudal glands are usually distinct, often conspicuous. The length 

 of the animal is jJ-q inch. 



The little creatures were plentiful in the shallow pool where 

 they were until the water dried away under the warmth of the sun, 

 and although the majority contained an ovarian Qgg, often two, I 

 failed to witness the extrusion, or to find one in the mud or among 

 the algse; neither could I keep the animals alive long enough in a 

 life-slide to mature the ovum. This I much regret, as so attractive 

 a form should have an unusually well-ornamented Qgg. 



Trenton, N. J. 



