450 Mr. W. Saville Kent on the Infusorial Parasites 



XLI. — Notes on the Infusorial Parasites of the Tasmanian 

 White Ant. By W. Saville Kent, F.L.S., F.Z.S., 

 Superintendent and Inspector of Fisheries. Tasmania*. 



So long since as the year 1856 M. C. Lespes, in a memoir 

 devoted to the organization of the European white ant {Termes 

 hicifufjus), recorded the fact that the contents of the intestine 

 of this insect are represented by a brown pulp consisting 

 chiefly of a living agglomeration of Infusoria. No specific 

 description of these Infusoria has been published up to the 

 present date, and it is only so recently as the year 1881 that a 

 detailed account, with illustrations, of the analogous parasites 

 of the American white ant (Termes flavipes) has been con- 

 tributed by Dr. Joseph Leidy to the ' Proceedings of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.' Through the 

 kind courtesy of Dr. Leidy I was enabled to include reprints 

 of his drawings of these parasitic animalcules in my mono- 

 graph of the Infusoria, then in course of publication, and 

 subsequently received from him, while residing in London, a 

 supply of the white ant with its accompanying parasites for 

 personal examination. 



It was with much interest that I discovered, soon after my 

 arrival in Tasmania, that a species of white ant (specific name 

 at present undetermined) abounds in this colony, feeding, after 

 the manner of the North-American type, upon decaying 

 timber, and having its intestine similarly laden with parasitic 

 Infusoria. On making a close examination of these Infusoria 

 I ascertained furthermore that they agreed with the American 

 types in being referable to no less than three distinct varieties, 

 two of which may be included in the generic groups instituted 

 for the American species by Dr. Leidy, while the third form 

 is entirely distinct. As species none of the series is precisely 

 identical with any that have hitherto been described, and 

 they have consequently to be recorded as new to science. 



The largest and most abundantly developed form to which 

 I will draw attention on this occasion is referable to Dr. 

 Leidy's genus Trichonynypha. It is an elongate or pyriform 

 animalcule, having normally a smooth, somewhat inflated, 

 posterior region, and an acuminately-pointed, highly flexible, 

 anterior portion, which is more or less distinctly striated in a 

 longitudinal direction. From Dr. Leidy's species Tricho- 

 nympha agilis it differs most distinctly in the relative shortness 



* From the ' Tapers and Proceedings of the Eoyal Society of Tas- 

 mania ' for 1884, pp. 270-273. Read November 17, 1884. 



