204 ON CARCHESIUM SPECTABILE. 
ON CARCHESIUM SPECTABILE. 
BY H. E. FORREST. 
Among the numerous, rare, and beautiful forms of animal life which 
were obtained from the Barnt Green Reservoir in such abundance last 
Autumn, by members of the Birmingham Natural History and Micro- 
scopical Society, was a species of Carchesium. I had the pleasure of 
spending several evenings with Mr. J. Levick in examining these rich 
gatherings, and both he and I noticed the wide difference between this 
and the common Carchesium polypinum, which also occurred in the same 
water. Since then I have received through Mr. Bolton a gathering of 
the same, made by Mr. Thompson, the secretary of the Microscopical 
Society of Liverpool. Mr. Bolton tells me he has also found it at the 
Hyde, near Stourbridge, and at the end of June, 1879, I found it again in 
the river Avon, at Evesham. 
As C. polypinum was the only species of the genus with which I was 
acquainted, I thought, at first, that this was a new species; but as my 
knowledge of the literature of the subject was insufficient, I forwarded 
specimens to Mr. W. Saville Kent, of London, asking him if there was 
any described species which agreed with it. With great courtesy he sent 
me descriptions of no less than four species other than C. polypinum, and 
expressed his opinion that the one in question was Carchesium spectabile, 
an opinion which upon mature consideration I fully endorse. Mr. Kent 
writes that there is no good published figure, and that Ehrenberg’s scanty 
and somewhat vague description seems to be all that is known of it. It 
is as follows: ‘Bodies conical-campanulate, dilated anteriorly ; polypary 
two lines in height, forming an obliquely conical bush of considerable 
size.” 
This description is perfectly correct, but very meagre, and the following 
additional particulars will probably be found useful, as I feel sure that 
when once public attention has been called to it, it will prove to be quite 
@ common species. 
Carchesium spectabile grows in little tufts attached to weeds or roots 
in stagnant or slowly running water. The colonies are in the shape of a 
solid cone, while C. polypinum grows as a hollow cone. The bells are 
placed thickly together on the stalks, and when the cilia are in motion 
the rim is everted and dilated beyond the bell, but not so much as in 
C. polypinum. It is very sluggish in its habits, and its sensibility to 
irritation is so slight that in order to make it contract its pedicel it is 
necessary to tickle it with a bristle. This peculiarity may easily cause it 
to be mistaken for an Hpistylis. It has a curious habit of investing itself 
all over with minute particles obtained from the surrounding water, and 
is often so entirely buried in this dirt as to be almost invisible. The 
cleanest specimens I have seen were those from the river Avon, but even 
they exhibited this tendency, though in a minor degree. Students of 
Infusoria are anxiously awaiting the issue of Mr. W. Saville Kent’s work, 
in which this and the other known species will be well and amply figured. 
